Ah! the bliss of that moment; ’twill ever remain, While my heart in its depths can feel pleasure or pain; For that kiss, to my heart was like rain to the flower, Just ready to die, till refresh’d by a shower. The soft touch of _her_ hand, the bright glance of her eye; The whisper’d word spoken, the half suppress’d sigh, May be proofs of true love, but the _kiss_ is the token, And pledge of a faith which may _never_ be broken. How fondly does memory dwell on it yet! The scene and the hour, who can ever forget, When reclin’d on your bosom, sustained in your arms, You breathed out the heart long subdued by her charms? Her _kiss_ was the answer; so slight yet so sweet, ’Twas enough; and that moment your bliss was complete; From the lips to each heart went a holier thrill, Delighting and binding those hearts closer still. That first kiss of love, when no mortal was near, Was a _sign_ that dispersed the last vestige of fear; She is mine, she is mine; mine now and forever; By those holiest ties that death only can sever. * * * * * LAME FOR LIFE, OR LESLIE PIERPOINT. A TALE, IN TWO PARTS. BY PROFESSOR J. H. INGRAHAM, AUTHOR OF “LAFITTE,” “KYD,” “THE QUADROONE,” ETC. “Is health returnless? Never more may I Throw by the staff on which, alas! I lean? Is the woof woven of my destiny? Shall I be ne’er again what I have been? And must the bodily anguish be combined With the intenseness of the anxious mind?” F. W. Thomas. If the reader will take the trouble to look in the revised edition of the Philadelphia Directory for the year 1838, he will find recorded the name of “Leslie Pierpoint, Gent. House No. 2-7 South Sixth St.” At the period of which we write this was the residence of this distinguished party to our story, and still would have been but for the simple incident that has led us to write it.