Boasters—For boasters the world has no use; but it is always on the lookout for men who do things. Solomon said: "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own lips."
128
GOOD BOOK-KEEPERS.
Sir Walter Scott, in lending a book one day to a friend, cautioned him to be punctual in returning it. "This is really necessary," said the poet in apology; "for though many of my friends are bad arithmeticians, I observe almost all of them to be good book-keepers."
129
AN EXPERIENCE AND A MORAL.
I lent my love a book one day;
She brought it back; I laid it by:
'Twas little either had to say,—
She was so strange, and I so shy.
But yet we loved indifferent things,—
The sprouting buds, the birds in tune,—
And Time stood still and wreathed his wings
With rosy links from June to June.
For her, what task to dare or do?
What peril tempt? What hardship bear?
But with her—ah! she never knew
My heart, and what was hidden there!