our hearts for her.

Thus the world shuts us out from all sympathy with its joys or
afflictions. But the world doesn't know everything,--least of all what
is passing in the heart of an old bachelor.

* * * * *

Jamie and Mary are old folks now. He never went to sea after his
marriage. Father set him up in a store. I should make it my home with
them, but they live at the old place, and I am always better away from
there.

Mrs. Maylie was right about my noticing children. I like to sit on the
stone wall and talk with them. No face comes between theirs and
mine,--unless it's the little girl's who moved away. Farmer Hill's is a
pleasant family. His grandchildren call me Captain Joseph. I humor them
almost as much as he does. When huckleberries come, they wonder why I
won't let them take that little rough-looking basket that hangs over the
looking-glass. 'Tis the one Margaret made that night in the hut on The
Mountains.

* * * * *

THE SNOW-MAN.


The fields are white with the glittering snow,
Save down by the brook, where the alders grow,
And hang their branches, black and bare,