ksul-uasc-mscc208_004

OCTOBER
Shake the last dust
from the (missing)
Royal rose or this (missing)
Which is fairer now?
Worst of weeds and queen of flowers,
Pride and mock of summer hours;
Dry shrivelled, old and brown-
In the wet grass tread them down.

Poppies, with the morning's
Burning beauty flushed;
Little-cared-for daisies,
Used to being crushed;
Loveless, scentless, side by side-
Which now most cause for pride?
Dry and shrivelled, old and brown-
In the wet grass tread them down.

Rankly-growing night-shade;
Child of gloom and death;
Lillies, white and saintly,
With celestial breath;
Useless now to bless or harm,
Vain their poison, vain their balm;
Dry and shrivelled, old and brown-
In the wet grass tread them down.

Amaranths, we fancied
Flowers that could not die;
Morning-glories, fading
Ere their dew was dry-
Which has now the nobler claim?
Which has now the prouder name?
Dry and shivelled, old and brown-
In the wet grass tread them down.

Aconite and nettle,
Myrtle-wreath and rose,
All, all fall together,
When the north wind blows.
Summer honors will not last
After summer-time has passed;
Dry and shrivelled, old and brown-
In the wet grass tread them down.
-----------------------

For the Companion.

A CONQUEROR.
He trusted me. He saw I was a mean looking fellow, but he trusted me!"
I said this to myself while I held the gentleman's horse. The cart was full of peaches.
Presently some of the fellows came up and hailed me. They wanted some peaches.
"Stand back," I said. "The man told me to take care of 'em. He trusted me. I should
like some of 'em as bad as you, but they can't be touched. He give 'em in my charge,
and you can't have a peach."
With that they begun to yell and hustle me; but I hit right and left, and drove them off. "You have good pluck, my boy," said the owner of the wagon. " I saw how well you behaved, and here's a dollar for you."
My eyes stood out.
"A whole dollar!" says I.
"Yes; do what you please with it."
"I'll make another dollar with it," said I.
The man had been looking at me earnestly.
"If you want a home," he said, " I think I can give you one. Jump in the wagon. I want a spunky, clever boy, who can learn to make money, and look after his employer's interests."
I went home, and from that day was like a son to the man who had so strangely become my benefactor.
When I was twenty-one he died, and left me ten thousand dollars. With that I traded, speculated, geew rich; rich enough, I thought, by the time I was twenty-five, to marry sweet Lilly West.
If Lilly had been my only love!
Gold was the rival of my wife. I wanted money, momey, money! Lilly loved me, but I was engrossed in business, and had no time for home.
I almost forgot I had a wife, at times, and left her with but little regret, to go distant places, on business; left her for months together.
At last I began to grow avaricious. I was haunted for fear Lilly was wasteful, extravagant. I looked at her purchases with suspicion. I cut down the expenses of the household.
"Do you really need two servants?" I asked her, one day.
"I don't know that I really do," she answered, for she was anxious always to please me.
" I am afraid I cannot afford it," I said.
"Then I will dismiss my housemaid," she said.
Then I begrudged her the cook. How slyly this passion steals upon the doul! Beware of it, young man. It is like a deadly frost that benumbs all the faculties but that one- the craving, the utter longing to get money.
Year by year I grew more saving; prudent, I called it.
God forgive me! sometimes there was no food in the house. Lilly grew like the flower she was named for, white and waxen. She seemed a burden to me. If I were only alone, I thought, how much richer I could get! It was madness. Finally, I told her that she was a burden, by taunts, and-yes, by curses. She learned to fly from my presence, and at last craved the protection of a relative. My wish was granted; now I could save!
I shut up all the house but one room. People looked askance at me.
At last I was taken ill. Heaven must have seen something in me to save, for I recovered. I wandered round the cheerless rooms, and one day, all at once, like a ray of light from the upper world, it flashed upon me what had made them so.
I remembered my benefactor's happy home, and how he had first trusted me, though I had fallen amoung thieves. Was this the way to re-pay his generous confidence?
And Lilly, she had been the child of his dearest friend; and I had, after making her my wife, driven her away. The recollection of her sweet