“In a soldier’s grave they laid him, Underneath the sheltering pines, Where the breezes made sweet music, Through the gently swaying vines. Now in heaven, our souls united, All their aspirations blend, And my spirit’s holy mission Thus hath found a joyful end.” Through our lives’ mysterious changes, Through the sorrow-haunted years, Runs a law of Compensation For our sufferings and our tears; And the soul that reasons rightly, All its sad complaining stills, Till it gains that calm condition, Where it wishes not, nor wills. FACE THE SUNSHINE. O, a morbid fancy had David Bell, That over his path like a wizard spell, A great, black shadow forever fell. He turned his back on the sun’s clear ray; From a singing bird, or a child at play, With a nervous shudder he shrank away; And he shook his head, As he gloomily said, “This shadow will haunt me till I am dead!” In the solemn shade of the forest wide, Or in the churchyard at eventide, Like a gloomy ghost he was seen to glide. There, nursing his fancies all alone, He would sit him down with a dismal moan, In the dewy grass by some moss-grown stone, And shake his head, As he gloomily said, “This shadow will haunt me till I am dead!” Never a nod or a smile would greet Old David Bell, in the field or street, From the sturdy yeoman he chanced to meet. The children fled from his path away, And the good wives whispered, “Alack a day! The Devil hath led his soul astray!” For he ever said, As he shook his head, “This shadow will haunt me till I am dead!” One Sabbath morn when the air was balm, And the green earth smiled with a heavenly charm, In the peaceful hush, in the holy calm, Old David Bell, with a new intent, Across the bridge o’er the mill-stream went, And his steps towards the village chapel bent. For he said, “I will try From this fiend to fly, And escape the shadow before I die!” But all along on the sandy road, His great, gaunt shadow before him strode, Like a fiend escaped from its dark abode. Sometimes it crouched in an angle small, Then up it leapt, like a giant tall; And as David noticed these changes all, He shook his head, As he gloomily said, “This shadow will haunt me till I am dead!” At length, he came to the chapel door, But the great, gaunt shadow went in before, Leaping and dancing along the floor. Old David mournfully turned away-- He could not enter to praise and pray, While that impish shadow before him lay. And he shook his head, As he gloomily said, “This shadow will haunt me till I am dead!”