RICHARD JEFFERIES.
Lover of Nature, whom her lovers love,
Those who were dear to thee to them are dear:
The world's hard way to lift their lives above
Is a clear duty, welcome as 'tis clear.
And if for every page of pure delight,
Those fine and faithful fingers wrought for all,
There came the slenderest gift, the poorest mite,
More lightly on those stricken hearts might fall,
The weight of sore bereavement, hard to bear,
E'en when, as here, all men its sorrow share.
Ogres in Dairyland.—Everybody has heard of Fairy Rings, which have a sweetly Arcadian sound. But "Dairy Rings" do not savour of Arcadia, save, perchance, in the sense suggested by the stock quotation, "Arcades ambo—blackguards both." The function of "Dairy Rings," it seems, is artificially and injuriously to keep up the cost of produce. Not until they are broken up will people really get "Milk Below"—monopoly prices.