Farmer lad, where the herd will drink Waits a maid that bathes by the brink Bare brown feet; and the rill, made sweet, Thrills to touch her who thee would greet. There is more for thee in the blue of her eye Than in all the towns that are under the sky. THE WIFE. About her fair sweet face, all bright, Is a constant halo of calm delight; And her smile attracts To genial acts All those who live in the sunny sight. She moves in a sphere not wholly obscure, With ways that are not wholly mature, But ready to go Where friend or foe May point the way to the wise or pure. Her mien by every grace refined With a welcome bends to all things kind; But something true To duty too Remains unbent in her inner mind. Her soul seeks not the name of wife, To sit by a plume, or the prize of a strife. She longs to share Not the outward glare, But the inward glow of her husband’s life. Ah, like the sky encircling the sea, Embracing his thoughts wherever they be, She rests above His life with a love That binds him fast, yet leaves him free. Toward her his thoughts in fancies rise, Like mists aglow in the sunset skies, And like nights here When the stars appear, His gloom gives way at the glance of her eyes. Through her his hope like a morning dream Attains a day of love supreme, Suffused with a light That makes earth bright, And life what it otherwise could but seem. Would God her heart could ever abide, A heaven for his heart’s heaving tide, Still calm above His restless love, And all the storms that over it glide! NOTHING TO KEEP UNDER. You envy those whom all men greet With favors never ceasing, The men whose ways are so discreet Their friends go on increasing, Whose moods get more than they deserve, Because not oft they blunder; But, even when unkind, have nerve To keep unkindness under. You envy those whose lips imply A smile for every neighbor, Though all his deeds may give the lie To truth for which they labor,— Good, easy souls, who never need To fret in wrath or wonder, To feel how hard is life, indeed, With so much to keep under. You envy those whose calm consent, Amid all earth’s mutations, Can sail the sea of life content With others’ observations; Who entertain no wish for strife Near shores where breakers thunder; But hold a cautious helm to life, And keep ambition under.