POETRY.

THE TOYS.

"I WENT far away, Lord, hearing the drums, I passed through the forest with stories wild and strange,

Stepping on the violet, and the grass as green as can be.

The sunlight died when I wished it would stay ; But the sudden moon shone between the two big hills, Making me feel it was another sort of moon.

My heart jumped when I heard a still happier sound ; Oh, Lord, wise and great, tell me what it was."

I said to the little girl, "How do I know When you who heard it did not know at all P Was it not a bird in the sky which made your heart fly P Was it not the leap of a fish who imagined the wonder of a sea ?

Was it not the voice of mother who called you back?

Was it not your sister following after you ? "

She said "Lord, wise and great, none of these, I am sorry to say." Then I said, "Little girl, won't you sleep and dream for awhile ?

I hear that a girl often finds in dream what she lost."

It was such a sweet girl who laid her little head on my lap ; Her eyelashes cast the shadows long and silky on her cheeks. She suddenly opened her eyes, round like little drums, and exclaimed, "Oh, Lord, wise and great, I found it after all : It was the sound of the bells around the neck of a horse, Who will take me to a town of a bigger castle and plenty of toys. I have many toys, to be sure, which are broken; Some of them were given by a stranger over the hills and seas ; Some were made at home by mother under the evening light, When papa burned incense and read his great prayer.

Oh, bow I need now some other toys bet ter and new " _

I put aside my books of poems old and said,

"Dear little girl, it is not only you who need a toy new and

better :

Shall we, you and I, take that horse that you heard, And bunt far away after the castle and toys ? "

YONN NOM:MM.