Page 309 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

‘'O n ly one leap,1’ she murmurs; "no more to be starved, oppressed;
May be 1 shall meet my Heroic! in the far-off land of rest.”

She sprang on the bridge’s coping, and gave just a glance around.
No one in sight! rTwas lucky 1 But her sharp ear caught a sound.
’ Twas a footstep coming1 quickly. Should she wait till it passed her by ?
No, she would plunge that instant, What matter who a aw her die ?

But a voice cries, " H old! for GodJs sake!" She start.?, and falls from
the ridge,
Not into tlie rushing river— not on to the hard, stone bridge ;
But a man's strong arms have caught her, she is gently raised to her
feet;
She turns, and they both are startled as soon as their glances meet.

“ H arold!" " Why, FSess, my darling!” The husband and wife have
met.
fVhat pen can describe the gladness such meetings as these beget?
Bess, hardly believed her senses ; she felt so supremely blest,
As her weary head lay pi-lowed on her sailor-husband's breast*

tie told how his ship had foundered, how he managed to reach a shore,
Where he eked out an existence for eighteen months or more,
Ti'l rescued, he came to England to search for his poor young wife,
And how he at last had found her, and brought her back to life.
J o h ^' K. N i c h o l l s .

NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP.
[The Wichita Eagle says that this poem was left at dts office by am imknoTni miii
who cftrnC to hsI; for %V0r1;,]
N E A R the campfire’s flickering light
Tn my blnnket-bcd I lie,
Gazing through the shades of night
A t the twinkling stars on high.
O'er me spirits in the air,