Whisper it low and fearfully, The tale of ghostly mystery; For toothless crones and graybeards said That from the presence of the dead An influence around was shed, Like warlock's foul, unholy spell, Of malisons and curses fell, Which steeped that soil with venom dank, Of which the fated willow drank. Whether it were or were not so, At least so much as this we know, That on the willow fell decay; And though, when all things else grew gay, It feebly strove to look as they, Yet was its summer crown of pride Worn lightly, and soon cast aside, And when Spring found it, it had died. A mound, and a stump with moss o'ergrown, Now mark the place of his rest alone. I see that the soft west-wind to-day From the cherry-trees beareth their blooms away, And wherever its fitful currents flow, Rising or falling, swift or slow, The tender petals like white wings go, Floating, eddying, wavering low, Wheeling and sinking in showers of snow; And under their light and flickering fall, The mound, and the flowering moss, and all, Grow blanched and white as a billow's crest. Thou that often these arms have pressed, Nestled warm to thy mistress's breast,-- Thou that takest thy colder rest, Now, in the breathless and pulseless ground, Close, but untenderly, folded round,-- Ever, by thy drifted mound, Sleep, the Mystery, be found Most mysterious, most profound! And through her enchanted air, Lighter than petals fair, Brooding Peace sink downward there; And the blasted willow make Haunt perpetual, for thy sake! TOM PAINE'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN AMERICA. "It were wise, nay, just, To strike with men a balance: to forgive, If not forget, their evil for their good's sake."--_Saul_, A Drama. In the year 1774, David Williams, a gentleman with deistical theories and scientific tastes, lived at Chelsea, near London. It was the same Williams whose tract on Political Liberty, published eight years afterward, and translated by Brissot, earned for him the dignity of _citoyen Français_, when that new order was created by the Revolution. At the time we speak of, Mr. Williams kept a school for boys. Dr. Franklin, who knew him well, often visited him. On one of these occasions, it is said that Williams introduced to the American agent a bright-eyed man approaching to middle age, named Thomas Paine, who had been usher in a school and was desirous of trying his fortune in the New World. After a short conversation, Franklin was so much pleased with the intelligence of this man, that he gave him full advice with regard to his voyage and to his movements after reaching his destination, and wrote in his behalf a letter to his son-in-law, Bache, introducing him as an "ingenious, worthy young man," very capable of filling the post of "clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or assistant surveyor."