The fancy of the past, that lent To jewels bright and rare Ascendency at every birth In this our planet's air, Hath to October's children given The opal with its hues of Heaven. The golden sunlight in the sky, The red leaf on the plain; Beneath the opal's changeful light Hope and Misfortune reign; And mid gay leaves of wondrous dyes, My darling first unclosed her eyes. I cannot in the future look The augury to prove, But earthly joys and earthly woes Must human spirits move; And she, like all, must strive with care, Disasters meet, and suffering bear. But I will teach her hopefully To meet what Fate betides, To live and labor earnestly, In narrow path or wide; And, with salt tears on paling cheek, A benediction still to speak. And if in some sweet inner sphere, Some home of love apart, An angel's duty she fulfil With but a woman's heart, Haply the red leaf, in its advent, may Find Hope o'er sorrow dominant for aye. A THOUGHT OF THE STARS. I remember once, when a careless child, I played on the mossy lea; The stars looked forth in the shadowy west, And I stole to my mother's knee, With a handful of stemless violets, wet With the drops of gathering dew, And asked of the wonderful points of light That shone in the distant blue. She told me of numberless worlds, that rolled Through the measureless depths above, Created by infinite might and power, Supported by infinite love. She told of a faith that she called divine, Of a fairer and happier home; Of hope unsullied by grief or fear, And a loftier life to come. She told of seraphs, on wings of light, That floated from star to star, And were sometimes sent on a mission high To a blighted orb afar. And with childish sense, I forgot the worlds, She had pointed out on high, And deemed each wonderful beam of light The glance of an angel's eye. And when she knelt with her babes in prayer,-- I know each petition now,-- I saw the gleam of those wings of light Lie beautiful on her brow. Years passed, and in earliest youth I knelt By my mother's dying bed; The lips were mute that had spoken love, And the eye's bright glance had fled. And when I turned from that silent room Where the latest word was spoken, The shadow of death o'er my spirit lay, And I thought that my heart was broken I sought the hush of the midnight air, And wept till the founts were dry; The earth was clad in a wintry garb, But the star host filled the sky.