Then the bells were rung, guns were fired, and bonfires blazed on the hilltops. Everybody rejoiced. Everybody was willing now to say that the Italian sailor was right when he declared the earth to be round. THE POWER OF GOD Thou art, O God! the life and light Of all this wondrous world we see; Its glow by day, its smile by night, Are but reflections caught from Thee. Where’er we turn, Thy glories shine, And all things fair and bright are Thine. When day, with farewell beam, delays, Among the opening clouds of even, And we can almost think we gaze Through golden vistas into heaven; Those hues that mark the sun’s decline, So soft, so radiant, Lord! are Thine. When night, with wings of starry gloom, O’ershadows all the earth and skies, Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes;-- That sacred gloom, those fires Divine, So grand, so countless, Lord! are Thine. --THOMAS MOORE. OUR COUNTRY AND OUR HOME There is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o’er all the world beside; Where brighter suns dispense serener light, And milder moons emparadise the night: A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth: The wandering mariner whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, Views not a realm so bountiful and fair, Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air. For in this land of Heaven’s peculiar grace, The heritage of Nature’s noblest race, There is a spot of earth supremely blest-- A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest: Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife, Strew with fresh flowers the narrow way of life; In the clear heaven of her delightful eye, An angel-guard of loves and graces lie; Around her knees domestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. “Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found?” Art thou a man?--a patriot?--look around; Oh, thou shalt find, howe’er thy footsteps roam, That land _thy_ Country, and that spot thy _Home_. --MONTGOMERY. NOTES ABOUT AUTHORS PAGE 7.--=François Coppée=, a noted French writer, was born at Paris in 1842. Although he was the writer of good French poetry and some successful plays, he is best known to American readers by his charming short stories, in which he depicts the life and aspirations of the common people. In his later life he was an ardent Catholic, and as such wrote fearlessly in defense of the rights of the Church in France. He died in 1908.