124 SELECT POETRY

But as the mother breathed his name,
The fervent prayer was scarcely said,

Convulsions shook his infant frame—
The mother’s only hope was dead !

Yet still her faith in Him she kept,
On Him who turned to grief her joy ;
And still she whispered, as she wept,
“Oh! blessed is my baby boy !”
S. C. Hall.

 

A CHILD'S WISH.

Ou! how I wish that I had lived
In the ages that are gone!

Like a brother of the Wandering Jew,
And yet kept living on;

For then in its early glory,
I could have proudly paced
The City of the Wilderness,'
Old Tadmor of the waste ;

And have seen the Queen of Sheba,’
With her camels riding on,

With spices rich, and precious stones,
To great King Solomon ;

And have talked with grey Phoenicians
Of dark and solemn seas,
And heard the wild and dismal tales
Of their far voyages.
3 Tadmor or Falmyra—e city built by Solomon; see 2nd
Chronicles, viii.
2 Queen of Shabe---aee 2nd Chronicles, vi. 1.