FOR CHILDREN, 167

The young and tender stalk

Ne’er bends where we do walk ;

Yet in the morning may be seen
Where we the night before have been.

 

THE DOG OF ST. BERNARD'S,

Tuey tell that on St. Bernard’s! mount,
Where holy monks abide,

Still mindful of misfortane’s claim,
Though dead to all beside;

The weary, way-worn traveller
Oft sinks beneath the snow ;

For, where his faltering steps to bend
No track is left to show.

"Twas here, bewildered and alone,
A stranger roamed at night;
His heart was heavy as his tread,

His scrip alone was light.

Onward he pressed, yet, many an hour
He had not tasted food ;

And many an hour he had not known
Which way his footsteps trod ;

And if the convent’s bell had rung
To hail the pilgrim near,

It still had rung in vain for him—
He was too far to hear ;

1 St. Bernard’s—a lofty mountain, one of the Alps, in
Switzerland, on the summit of which is a monastery, whose
inmates are accustomed to give hospitable shelter to the
weary traveller.