“A DREAM THAT WAS NOT ALL A DREAM.”

Through the half-curtained window stole

An Autumn sunset's glow,

As languid on my couch I lay

With pulses weak and low.

And then methought a presence stood,

With shining feet and fair,

Amid the waves of golden light

That rippled through the air,

And laid upon my heaving breast,

With earnest glance and true,

A babe, whose fair and gentle brow

No shade of sorrow knew.

A solemn joy was in my heart,—

Immortal life was given

To Earth, upon her battle-field

To discipline for Heaven.

Soft music thrilled the quiet room,—

An unseen host were nigh,

Who left the infant pilgrim at

The threshold of our sky.

A new, strange love woke in my heart,

Defying all control,

As on the soft air rose and fell

That birth-hymn for a soul!

And now again the Autumn skies,

As on that evening, shine,

When, from a trance of agony,

I woke to joy divine.

That boundless love is in my heart,

That birth-hymn on the air;

I clasp in mine, with grateful faith,

A tiny hand in prayer.

And bless the God who guides my way,

That, mid this world so wide,

I day by day am walking with

An angel by my side.