POETRY.

GRATITUDE.

ETER3TAL gratitude—a long, thin word : When meant, oftenest left unheard : When light on the tongue, light in the parse, too : Of curious metallurgy : when coined true It glitters not, is neither large nor small : More worth than rubies—less, times, than a ball.

Not gift, nor willed : yet through its wide range Buys what it buys exact, and leaves no change.

Old Gurney had it, won on a hot day With ale, from glib-voiced Gypsy by the way.

Ho held it lightly : for 'twas a rum start To find a hedgeling who had still a heart : So put it down for twist of a beggar's tongue. . .

He had not felt the heat : how the dust stung A face June-roasted : he saw not the look Aslant the gift-mug ; how the hand shook. .

Yet the words rang in his head, and he grew merry And whistled from the Boar to Wrye-bie;ok ferry, And chaffed with Ferryman when the hawser croakt Or !flipping bilge showed where the planks leakt : Lent hand himself, till doubly hard the barge Butted its nose in mud of the farther merge.

When Gurney leapt to shore, he found—dismay !

Ho had no tuppence—(tuppence was to pay

To sulky Ferryman). " Naught have I," says ho,

" Naught, but the gratitude of Tammas Leo Given one hour." Sulky Charon grinned : " Done," said he ; " done : I take—all of it., mind."

" Done," cries Jan Gurney. Down the road ho went, But by the ford left all his merriment.

This is the tale of midday chaffering : How Charon took, and Gurney lost the thing : How Ferryman gave it for his youngest daughter To a tall lad who saved her out of water (Being old and mean, had nono.of his own to give, So passed on Tammas', glad to see her live): How the young Farmer paid his quarter's rent With that one coin, when all else was spent, And how Squire kept it for some goldless debt. • • For aught I know, it wanders current yet.

Yet Tantrum was no angel in disguise: He stole Squire's chickens—often ; he told lies, Robbed Charon's garden, burnt young : Farmer's ricks And played the village many lousy tricks.

No children sniffled and no dog cried, When, full of oaths and dirt, he died.

RICHARD IfucHns.