“_I see no other worlds!_—and Heaven Bends o’er me with prophetic eye; Alas! my wild and wildering glance Can never pierce that starred expanse, Yon radiant sphere may not be given, My aims to gratify! Hath not this oft-told tale a moral, Impressive of the vanity To which all human hopes must tend— To where ambitious flights must end!— For still Earth’s proudest crown and laurel, Mock poor mortality!” * * * * * =GATHER RIPE FRUIT, OH DEATH!= Gather ripe fruit, oh death! exclaims the gifted, Full of fresh blossoms for the ripening hour; Adown whose sky the clouds afar have drifted— Whose golden hopes are gilding bud and flower; Who, through the vista long, of years advancing, Sees fame and honors round his pathway spread, And views green laurels in the distance glancing, All wreathed in beauty for his waiting head. Gather ripe fruit, oh death! the young bride crieth, Whilst blushing joys her trembling bosom thrill, And each enchanted hour so noiseless flieth, That no distracting fears her bright hopes fill. The future, all in rainbow-tints is glowing, Painted with hues from Love’s own gorgeous dyes; And life seems but a river, softly flowing ’Mid fragrant banks, ’neath bland and sunny skies. Gather ripe fruit, oh death! is ever ringing From anxious lips, with deep and earnest tone; Some joy, some hope, is ever fondly springing, Which clinging fancy deemeth theirs alone. All, youth and age alike, the reaper spurneth, The young in triumph point to those before; And age, from the grim spectre trembling turneth, And bids him glean from fields all ripened o’er! * * * * * =THE LUCKY PENNY.= =BY MRS. S. C. HALL.= CHAPTER I. “And what will you do with yours, Willy?” “I dun know,” replied the heavy-looking urchin, while he turned the half-pence over and over in his hand; “two ha p’nees; it’s not much.” Ned pirouetted on one broad, bare foot, and tossed a summerset on the pavement, close to the pretty basket-shop at a corner of Covent-Garden Market, while “Willy” pondered over the half-pence. When “Ned” recovered his breath, and had shouldered the door-post for half a minute, he again spoke—