North and South

“HASTE TO THE WEDDING.” “Wooed and married and a’.” “Edith!” said Margaret, gently, “Edith!” But as Margaret half suspected, Edith had fallen asleep. She lay curled up on th...

ROSES AND THORNS. “By the soft green light in the woody glade, On the banks of moss where thy childhood played By the household tree, thro’ which thine eye First l...

“THE MORE HASTE THE WORSE SPEED.” “Learn to win a lady’s faith Nobly, as the thing is high; Bravely, as for life and death— With a loyal gravity. Lead her...

DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. “Cast me upon some naked shore, Where I may tracke Only the print of some sad wracke, If thou be there though the seas roare, I shall ...

DECISION. “I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, Through constant watching wise, To meet the glad with joyful smiles, And to wipe the weeping eyes; And a heart...

FAREWELL. “Unwatch’d the garden bough shall sway, The tender blossom flutter down, Unloved that beech will gather brown, The maple burn itself away; U...

NEW SCENES AND FACES. “Mist clogs the sunshine, Smoky dwarf houses Hem me round everywhere.” MATTHEW ARNOLD. The next afternoon, abou...

HOME SICKNESS. “And it’s hame, hame, hame, Hame fain wad I be.” It needed the pretty light papering of the rooms to reconcile them to Milton. It needed more—more that cou...

DRESSING FOR TEA. “Let China’s earth, enriched with coloured stains, Pencil’d with gold, and streaked with azure veins, The grateful flavour of the Indian leaf, Or...

WROUGHT IRON AND GOLD. “We are the trees whom shaking fastens more.” GEORGE HERBERT. Mr. Thornton left the house without coming into the dining-room again. He w...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. “There’s iron, they say, in all our blood, And a grain or two perhaps is good; But his, he makes me harshly feel, Has got a little too much of s...

MORNING CALLS. “Well—I suppose we must.” FRIENDS IN COUNCIL. Mr. Thornton had had some difficulty in working up his mother to the desired point of civility. She...

SOFT BREEZE IN A SULTRY PLACE. “That doubt and trouble, fear and pain, And anguish, all, are shadows vain, That death itself shall not remain; That weary deserts ...

THE MEETING. “I was used To sleep at nights as sweetly as a child,— Now if the wind blew rough, it made me start, And think of my poor boy toss...

MASTERS AND MEN. “Thought fights with thought; out springs a spark of truth From the collision of the sword and shield.” W. S. LANDOR. “Margaret,” said her ...

THE SHADOW OF DEATH. “Trust in that veiled hand, which leads None by the path that he would go; And always be for change prepared, For the world’s law is ebb and f...

WHAT IS A STRIKE? “There are briars besetting every path, Which call for patient care; There is a cross in every lot, And an earnest need for prayer.” ...

LIKES AND DISLIKES. “My heart revolts within me, and two voices Make themselves audible within my bosom.” WALLENSTEIN. On Margaret’s return home she found t...

ANGEL VISITS. “As angels in some brighter dreams Call to the soul when man doth sleep, So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes, And into glory ...

MEN AND GENTLEMEN. “Old and young, boy, let ’em all eat, I have it; Let ’em have ten tire of teeth a-piece, I care not.” ROLLO, DUKE OF NORMANDY. Margaret w...

desperate earnest,—not in the used-up style that wearied her so in the old London parties. She wondered that, with all this dwelling on the manufacturers and trade of the place, no...

THE DARK NIGHT. “On earth is known to none The smile that is not sister to a tear.” ELLIOTT. Margaret and her father walked home...

A BLOW AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. “But work grew scarce, while bread grew dear, And wages lessened, too; For Irish hordes were bidders here, Our half-paid work t...

MISTAKES. “Which when his mother saw, she in her mind Was troubled sore, he wist well what to ween.” SPENSER. Margaret had not been gone five minutes when M...

MISTAKES CLEARED UP. “Your beauty was the first that won the place And scal’d the walls of my undaunted heart, Which, captive now, pines in a caitive case, Unk...

FREDERICK. “Revenge may have her own; Roused discipline aloud proclaims their cause, And injured navies urge their broken laws.” BYRON. Margaret...

MOTHER AND SON “I have found that holy place of rest Still changeless.” MRS. HEMANS. When Mr. Thornton had left the house that morning he was almost blinded...

FRUIT-PIECE. “For never any thing can be amiss When simpleness and duty tender it.” MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Mr. Thornton went straight and clear into al...

COMFORT IN SORROW. “Through cross to crown!—And though thy spirit’s life Trials untold assail with giant strength, Good cheer! good cheer! Soon ends the bitter strif...

“Yo’ needn’t trouble yoursel’, sir,” said Nicholas. “Their book-stuff goes in at one ear and out at t’other. I can make nought on’t. Afore Hamper and me had this split, th’ overloo...

A RAY OF SUNSHINE. “Some wishes crossed my mind and dimly cheered it, And one or two poor melancholy pleasures, Each in the pale unwarming light of hope, Silvering...

HOME AT LAST. “The saddest birds a season find to sing.” SOUTHWELL. “Never to fold the robe o’er secret pain, Never, weighed down by memory’s clouds aga...

“SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT.” “Show not that manner, and these features all, The serpent’s cunning, and the sinner’s fall?” CRABBE. The...

MISCHANCES. “What! remain to be Denounced—dragged, it may be, in chains.” WERNER. All the next day they sate together—they three. Mr. Hale hardly ever spoke...

PEACE. “Sleep on, my love, in thy cold bed, Never to be disquieted! My last Good Night—thou wilt not wake Till I thy fate shall overtake.” D...

FALSE AND TRUE. “Truth will fail thee never, never! Though thy bark be tempest-driven, Though each plank be rent and riven, Truth will bear thee on for ever!” ...

EXPIATION. “There’s nought so finely spun But it cometh to the sun.” Mr. Thornton sate on and on. He felt that his company gave pleasure to Mr. Hale; and was touched by t...

UNION NOT ALWAYS STRENGTH. “The steps of the bearers, heavy and slow, The sobs of the mourners, deep and low.” SHELLEY. At the time arranged the previous da...

LOOKING SOUTH. “A spade! a rake! a hoe! A pickaxe or a bill! A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow, A flail or what ye will— And here’s a ready hand To ...

PROMISES FULFILLED. “Then proudly, proudly up she rose, Tho’ the tear was in her e’e, Whate’er ye say, think what ye may, Ye’s get na word frae me!” ...

MAKING FRIENDS. “Nay, I have done; you get no more of me; And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart, That thus so clearly I myself am free.” DRAYTON. Ma...

OUT OF TUNE. “I have no wrong, where I can claim no right, Naught ta’en me fro, where I have nothing had, Yet of my woe I cannot so be quite; Namely, since that...

THE JOURNEY’S END. I see my way as birds their trackless way— I shall arrive! what time, what circuit first, I ask not: but unless God sends his hail Or blinding f...

ALONE! ALONE! “When some beloved voice that was to you Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly, And silence, against which you dare not cry, Aches round you lik...

MARGARET’S FLITTIN’. “The meanest thing to which we bid adieu, Loses its meanness in the parting hour.” ELLIOTT. Mrs. Shaw took as vehement a dislike as it ...

EASE NOT PEACE. “A dull rotation, never at a stay, Yesterday’s face twin image of to-day.” COWPER. “Of what each one should be, he sees the form...

NOT ALL A DREAM. “Where are the sounds that swam along The buoyant air when I was young; The last vibration now is o’er, And they who listened are no more; Ah!...

ONCE AND NOW. “So on those happy days of yore Oft as I dare to dwell once more, Still must I miss the friends so tried, Whom Death has severed from my side. B...

SOMETHING WANTING. “Experience, like a pale musician, holds A dulcimer of patience in his hand; Whence harmonies we cannot understand, Of God’s will in His worlds,...

“NE’ER TO BE FOUND AGAIN.” “My own, my father’s friend! I cannot part with thee! I ne’er have shown, thou ne’er hast known, How dear thou art to me.” ...

BREATHING TRANQUILLITY. “And down the sunny beach she paces slowly, With many doubtful pauses by the way; Grief hath an influence so hushed and holy.” HO...

CHANGES AT MILTON. “Here we go up, up, up; And here we go down, down, downee!” NURSERY SONG. Meanwhile at Milton the chimneys smoked, the ceaseless roar and...

MEETING AGAIN. “Bear up, brave heart! we will be calm and strong; Sure, we can master eyes, or cheek, or tongue, Nor let the smallest tell-tale sign appear She eve...

“PACK CLOUDS AWAY.” “For joy or grief, for hope or fear, For all hereafter, as for here, In peace or strife, in storm or shine.” ANON. Edith went about ...