WELCOME, SWEET MAY.

Welcome, sweet May!

With thy sunshine and showers

Thou'st driven away

Old winter's dark hours.

Poor fellow! he seemed rather loth to depart,

Till thou, with thy sunshine, compelled him to start.

Welcome, sweet May!

That bringest to me,

Wherever I stray,

A sweet memory,

When fragrant pink blossoms hung thick overhead,

And love lay asleep in a violet bed.

Welcome, sweet May!

With thy sunshine and showers,

When young love awoke

From sleep 'mong the flowers.

Each year, in thy sunshine, 'neath heavens of blue,

With thy sweet, fragrant blossoms he's wakened anew.

Welcome, sweet May!

LAKESIDE.[1]

'Tis the dearest, coolest place I can find;

There the locust and the wild grape entwined

Float their dewy fragrance ever

O'er the dancing St. Joe river

On the wings of the soft drowsy wind.

In the coziest of homes, neat and new,

Dwell its people so kind-hearted and true.

Not a wall or tower high

Mars the tender, sunlight sky,

Or shuts out the glad rainbow from view.

When a dwelling for his mate is in quest,

Does the robin find its shelter the best.

There his sweetest notes he brings,

And a flood of music flings

O'er your head as you pass 'neath his nest.

There are morning-glories dripping with dew,

And the dogwood blossoms hang over you.

In a drowse of rapture sweet

Does this vale look up to meet,

And to bask in the smile of the blue?

Would your soul free from troubles be made?

All its worries and its burdens unlade?

From the tumult and the heat

Of the noisy city street,

Take yourself to the bliss of its shade.

There you'll drink till you stagger as you plod,

Of the sweets from the blossom-spangled sod,

While your weary frame is drenched,

And your thirsty soul is quenched,

In a shower of the great love of God.

[1] The above is a description of the Lakeside addition to Ft. Wayne, Ind.