Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Then went up the children's united voices, like one sad wail, " Baby is dead!" " Yes, my children," said their father, in a voice broken by grief, " our precious little Alfred is gone. But, try to say, and try to help us say, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'" The poor children could not say it then, for their bitter crying; but, before they went to bed, they sobbed forth the sacred words, as they knelt by the crib where little Ally lay, still, and very pale, dressed in a snowy muslin frock, with his waxen hands clasped on his breast, and holding a tiny white rose-bud, an emblem of his sinless little life. A CHARADE. IN the wet rice-swamps and canebrakes tall My first the driver wields ; It sounds among the dusky gang In the snowy cotton-fields; But fast comes on the day that ends Its reign of blood and fear, — Comes with the sound of breaking chains, And the freedman's joyous cheer. Be kind to such as are my second, In spirit and in truth ; Have pity on their helpless age And on their joyless youth. Remember them whene'er you feast, And on your downy bed, For the sake of Him who "had not where On earth to lay his head." Good may my third be in your hearts Towards all of human kind, Strong to reclaim the wandering, And the lost lamb to find; To help the suffering, and to bear Thine own adversity; To speak brave words for truth and right, And strike for liberty. My whole is a mournful little bird, That in the twilight dim Complains how hardly he's been used, Till all must pity him. But not one word of what he did Reveals the doleful wight, — His mother's story could we hear, "We might say, " Served him right!" Whip-poor-wiU. FAITHFUL LITTLE RUTH. LIT...