THE NORTHERN MINSTREL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 74

THE NORTHERN MINSTREL.

The- northern poetess we sought, Two wandering minstrels we, Concerned in scarce an earthly tnoughfc

Saving its minstrelsy. Some narrow atic 'mid the fire

Of sunsets burning fair, Accompanied by sacred lyre, We thought to find her there. Along the dusky line we sped, ' And 'searched it "o'er and o'er, Till spires in misty grandeur fled, And atica were no more. " Not here!" the stillness said; "Not bezel 1 * "-. We' raised our voice again — - But darkness echoed back with fearThe name we whispered, then Down, with our cherished hope nigh spent, To cellars where _the sun But dimly gleams we sped, intent To find the lonely one. Still pleading, on the midnight .slept, So were the shadows still, That darkly to our bosoms crept ' \ A sense of coming ill. ' Another path' from here; itled .. To,whei6'the."fielcls -were- brown,'.- t , -And Hbpe'andrFear alike were~wed /- About the .busy. town. .* A cottage such ar- common folk \ ' • ; "-•• -InhamV-was her' share; ,* ' "'. .fWe thought that music' never woka ' ' So humbly, or so fair. Completely round u» ,wa» ncr songr- . . , - The- mountains, tier, on. tier; ' The winding stream that 'flowed along Beside her dream was here. Here were Novemßer-'s winsome birds

That oa-me upon her birth To learn' the music of her*-worda

And fill the woods with mirth. Kind Ceremony bade us in, 'And in the twilight deep , . ■ - - We heaid her sing a song to win Her tiny ,babes to sleep. No dream of earth's forboding caies ' , Their infant slumber stirs, ' For every joy on earth was theirs, And ali its care was hers. Amid tie evening prayer she smlied— And tears were ne'er so bright A those, by earnest prayer beguiled, That Ussed her cheeks that night.

'Twas thus we heard bur sister sing-,

And, with a soft good-bye, , _ , Wo left her there, remembering, My minstrel friend and I. - - — J. Macl^nnak, Ts Kohanga, Dunedin, March, 1903.

— A Dutch teather, who recently made in-< vestigation at his school, found that out of 50 boys from , five to ten years of age just half could smoke a pipe or a cigar without inconvenience. Nine boys . from, "five ,to seven years old were hardened