THREE SONGS.

I.

TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY.THE perfume of the orange-flowers

Steals through the church to-day,

The splendid walls re-echo loud

With sounds of music gay.

But yesterday a sorrowing one

Left here her only child,

Mid kindly weeping comforters,

Mid music sad and wild.

II.

MOTHER-OF-PEARL.The sunbeams ever waken

To life thy paleness rare;

And changing colors all trembling

Dispel thy cold, dumb care.

O maiden, thy pale, pale beauty,

Could love but cheer thy gloom,

Would vie with the blushing loveliness

Of May-born apple-bloom!

III.

FLOWER AND FRUIT.A sea of fair white blossoms

Doth surge in the morning breeze,

And a song like old-time memories,

Comes stealing through the trees.

Countless, in sooth, are the blossoms,

And sweet is the murmurous song;

But the fruit, alas! will it meet our hopes?

Can that music echo long?

F. A. T.