I ask not for a kinder tone, for thou wert ever kind;
I ask not for less frugal fare, my fare I do not mind;
I ask not for attire more gay-if such as I have got
Suffice to make me fair to thee, for more I murmur not.
But I would ask some share of hours that you on clubs bestow,
Of knowledge which you prize so much, might I not something know?
Subtract from meetings amongst men each eve an hour for me ;
Make me companion of your soul, as I may safely be.
If you will read, I'll sit and work; then think when you're away;
Less tedious I shall find the time, dear William, of your stay.
A meet companion soon I'll be fór e’en your stúdious hours,
And teacher of those little ones you call your cottage flowers;
And if we be not rich and great, we may be wise and kind,
And as my heart can warm your heart, so may my mind your mind.

CASA WAPPY.*
AND hast thou sought thy heavenly home,

Our fond, dear boy-
The realms where sorrow dare not come,

Where life is joy ?
Pure at thy death as at thy birth,
Thy spirit caught no taint from earth;
Even by its bliss we mete our death,

Casa Wappy!

Thou wert a vision of delight

To bless us given ;
Beauty embodied to our sight,

A type of heaven :
So dear to us thou wert, thou art
Even less thine own self than a part
Of mine and of thy mother's heart,

Casa Wappy!
Thy bright brief day knew no decline,

'Twas cloudless joy;
Sunrise and night alone were thine,

Beloved boy!
This morn beheld thee blithe and gay,
That found thee prostrate in decay,
And ere a third shone, clay was clay,

Casa Wappy!

* From Domestic Verses, by Delta (D. M. Moir, Esq.), 1842. Casa Wappy was the self-conferred pet name of an infant son of the poet, snatched away after a very brief illness.

Gem of our hearth, our household pride,

Earth's undefiled ;
Could love have saved, thou hadst not died,

Our dear, sweet child !
Humbly we bow to Fate's decree ;
Yet had we hoped that Time should see
Thee mourn for us, not us for thee,

Casa Wappy!

Do what I may, go where I will,

Thou meet'st my sight;
There dost thou glide before me still-

A form of light !
I feel thy breath upon my cheek-
I see thee smile, I hear thee speak-
Till, oh! my heart is like to break,

Casa Wappy!

Methinks thou smil'st before me now,

With glance of stealth ;
The hair thrown back from thy full brow

In buoyant health :
I see thine eyes' deep violet light,
Thy dimpled cheek carnationed bright,
Thy clasping arms so round and white,

Casa Wappy!

The nursery shews thy pictured wall,

Thy bat, thy bow,
Thy cloak and bonnet, club and ball;

But where art thou ?
A corner holds thine empty chair,
Thy playthings idly scattered there,
But speak to us of our despair,

Casa Wappy!

Even to the last thy every word

To glad, to grieve-
Was sweet as sweetest song of bird

On summer's eve ;
In outward beauty undecayed,
Death o'er thy spirit cast no shade,
And like the rainbow thou didst fade,

Casa Wappy!

Snows muffled earth when thou didst go,

In life's spring-bloom,
Down to the appointed house below,

The silent tomb.
But now the green leaves of the tree,
The cuckoo and 'the busy bee,'
Return-but with them bring not thee,

Casa Wappy! 'Tis so; but can it be—while flowers

Revive again, Man's doom, in death that we and ours

For aye remain ? Oh! can it be, that o'er the grave The grass renewed should yearly wave, Yet God forget our child to save ?

Casa Wappy! It cannot be : for were it so

Thus man could die,
Life were a mockery, Thought were woe,

And Truth a lie;
Heaven were a coinage of the brain,
Religion frenzy, Virtue vain,
And all our hopes to meet again,

Casa Wappy!
Then be to us, o dear, lost child !

With beam of love,
A star, death's uncongenial wild

Smiling above;
Soon, soon thy little feet have trod
The skyward path, the seraph's road,
That led thee back from man to God,

Casa Wappy!