Brightly lighted streets stretched away in several directions. A procession of men and women bearing banners and beating drums and tambourines passed along, singing hymns, and pausing now and then to kneel on the cobblestones to pray or to urge the little clusters of idlers to join them in their march to safety. Above the wondrous stars and moon were shining as they had shone at the dawn of eternal thought. They shone on the Vatican at Rome, the imperial cradle of saints; on the comfortable homes of ministers in the church; on the "palaces" of gentle-blooded bishops; on assemblages of men who were wrangling over creeds; on gatherings where earnest searchers after truth were being tried for heresy; on prisons where inmates of dark, silent cells were praying for a gleam of light, for but the voice of an insect to keep madness from their tortured brains; on millions of suffering human beings--on the cold, dead form of one who understood naught but love. O THOU WHO SIGHEST FOR A BROADER FIELD. JULIA ANNA WOLCOTT. O thou who sighest for a broader field Wherein to sow the seeds of truth and right, Who fain a nobler, wider power wouldst wield O'er human souls that languish for the light; Search well the realm that even now is thine! Canst not thou in some far-off corner find A heart, sin-bound, as tree with sapping vine, That waiteth help its burdens to unbind? Some human plant, perchance beneath thine eyes, Pierced through by hidden thorns of idle fears; Or, drooping low for need of light from skies Obscured by doubt-clouds, raining poison tears? Some bruised soul the balm of love would heal? Some timid spirit faith would courage give? Or maimed brother who, though brave and leal, Still needeth thee to rightly walk and live? Oh, while _one_ soul thou find'st that hath not known The fullest help thy soul hath power to give, Sigh not for fields still broader than thine own, But, steadfast, in thine own more broadly live! AN EVENING AT THE CORNER GROCERY. A WESTERN CHARACTER SKETCH. BY HAMLIN GARLAND. Colonel Peavy had just begun the rubber with Judge Gordon of Cerro-Gordo County. They were seated in Robie's grocery, behind the rusty old cannon stove, the checker-board spread out on their knees. The Colonel was grinning in great glee, wringing his bony yellow hands in nervous excitement, in strong contrast to the stolid calm of the fat Judge.