Of all sad voices from forgotten years, Its is the saddest; see what tender tears Drop on the yellow keys as, soft and slow, I play some melody of long ago. How strange it seems! The thin, weak notes that once were rich and strong Give only now the shadow of a song―― The dying echo of the fuller strain That I shall never, never hear again, Unless in dreams. What hands have touched it! Fingers small and white, Since stiff and weary with life’s toil and fight; Dear clinging hands that long have been at rest, Folded serenely on a quiet breast. Only to think, O white sad notes, of all the pleasant days, The happy songs, the hymns of holy praise, The dreams of love and youth, that round you cling! Do they not make each sighing, trembling string A mighty link? The old piano answers to my call, And from my fingers lets the lost notes fall. O soul! that I have loved, with heavenly birth Wilt thou not keep the memory of earth, Its smiles and sighs? Shall wood and metal and white ivory Answer the touch of love with melody, And thou forget? Dear one, not so. I move thee yet (though how I may not know) Beyond the skies. Illustration: (‡ decoration) Illustration: (‡ decoration) MISS ALICE FRENCH. (_Octave Thanet_). THE REPRESENTATIVE NOVELIST OF THE SOUTHWEST. AS one of the most prominent among our modern women novelists stands the name of Octave Thanet. The real owner of this widely known pen-name is Miss Alice French. Though Miss French is recognized as the representative novelist of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Southwest generally, where she has lived for many years, she is by birth and education a genuine Yankee woman, and on both sides a descendant from old Puritan stock. Her ancestors came over in the Mayflower. They count among them many Revolutionary heroes and not a few persecutors of the witches one hundred and fifty and two hundred years ago, and they, also, number to themselves some of the modern rulers and prominent ministers of Massachusetts. Mr. French, the father of the authoress, was during his life a loyal Westerner, but it is said never lost his fondness for the East and went there regularly every summer, and his daughter still maintains the custom. While Mr. French was a thorough business man, he was, moreover, an enthusiastic lover of books and the fine arts, and instilled into Miss Alice during her early training a love for reading, and encouraged her to write.