The pine trees whisper where they lean Above thy tide; and, mirrored there The purple peaks their bosoms bare, Reflected in thy silver sheen. So fair thou art! And yet there dwells Within thy sylvan solitudes A memory which darkling broods And all thy witchery dispels. DANIEL S. RICHARDSON, in _Trail Dust._ MARCH 24. DONNER LAKE. Donner Lake a pleasure resort! Can you understand for one moment how strange this seems to me? I must be as old as Haggard's "She," since I have lived to see our papers make such a statement. It is years since I was there, yet I can feel the cold and hunger and hear the moan of the pines; those grand old trees that used to tell me when a storm was brewing and seemed to be about the only thing there alive, as the snow could not speak. But now that the place is a pleasure resort--the moan of the pines should cease. VIRGINIA REED MURPHY. MARCH 25. THE LURE OF THE DESERT LAND. Have you slept in a tent alone--a tent Out under the desert sky-- Where a thousand thousand desert miles All silent 'round you lie? The dust of the aeons of ages dead, And the peoples that tramped by! * * * * * Have you lain with your face in your hands, afraid, Face down--flat down on your face--and prayed, While the terrible sandstorm whirled and swirled In its soundless fury, and hid the world And quenched the sun in its yellow glare-- Just you and your soul, and nothing there? If you have, then you know, for you've felt its spell, The lure of the desert land. And if you have not, then you could not tell-- For you could not understand. MADGE MORRIS WAGNER, in _Lippincott's._ MARCH 26. One of the most beautiful lakes in the world is Lake Tahoe. It is six thousand feet above sea-level, and the mountains around it rise four thousand feet higher. * * * The first thing one would notice, perhaps, is the wonderful clearness of the lake water. As one stands on the wharf the steamer _Tahoe_ seems to be hanging in the clear green depths with her keel and propellers in plain sight. The fish dart under her and all about as in some large aquarium. * * * Every stick or stone shows on the bottom as one sails along where the water is sixty or seventy feet deep. ELLA M. SEXTON, in _Stories of California._ MARCH 27. A PLAINSMAN'S SONG--MY LOVE.