And dripping and skipping,
And hitting and splitting,
And shining and twining,

And rattling and battling,
And shaking and quaking,
And pouring and roaring,
And waving and raving.
And tossing and crossing,
And flowing and going,
And running and stunning,
And foaming and roaming,
And dinning and spinning,
And dropping and hopping,
And working and jerking,
And guggling and struggling,
And heaving and cleaving,
And moaning and groaning;

And glittering and frittering,
And gathering and feathering,
And whitening and brightening,
And quivering and shivering,
And hurrying and skurrying,
And thundering and floundering;

Dividing and gliding and sliding,
And falling and brawling and sprawling,
And driving and riving and striving,

And sprinkling and twinkling and wrinkling,
And sounding and bounding and rounding,
And bubbling and troubling and doubling,
And grumbling and rumbling and tumbling,

And clattering and battering and shattering;

Retreating and heating and meeting and sheeting Delaying and straying and playing and spraying

Advancing and prancing and glancing and dancing,
Recoiling, turmoiling and toiling and boiling,

And gleaming and streaming and steaming and beaming,
And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing,
And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping,
And curling and whirling and purling and twirling,
And thumping and plumping and bumping and jumping,
And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing;
And so never ending, but always descending,
Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending,
All at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproar.
And this way the water comes down at Lodore.

Robert Southey.

V.

PUSSY IN THE WELL.

"DOES your father let you go about the village?" said the woodcutter.

Casper said "Yes."

"Well," said Mr. Broadaxe, "the next time you want something done for you, just run out of the door and do something for somebody. See how many people you can make happy."

Why, how?" said Casper, opening his eyes very wide.

"Find out," said the woodman. "If people have fallen down, pick 'em1 up; if they hunger, feed them; if they thirst, give them drink. Don't go near the people that speak bad words. There are

plenty of others that would be glad enough to have a little piece of kindness come walking up."

"I wish I was a little piece of kindness," said Casper, "like Ruth."

"Where did Ruth get her goodness?"

Casper looked up and smiled a very bright smile, but he did not speak.

"Ask, and ye shall receive,' little boy," said Mr. Broadaxe, as he rose up to go away.

And Casper answered, "Mr. Broadaxe, I do try." He stood as usual in the doorway, watching his friend as he went down the road; and when that pleasant sight was no more to be seen Casper looked round upon the village. He could see a good deal of that. The road wound away up the hill towards the church, softening off in the distance; and the little village houses were grouped and scattered by the wayside, now thickly and now far apart. Every thing looked very quiet. The men were out at work, the women at work within; the children at school or at play on the hill-side. Down the road a flock of white geese came waddling along, plucking the grass and talking to each other in very harsh tones, and otherwise the road seemed deserted, unless when a stray cat came softly out from one house and crossed over to another.

"I s'pose1 Mr. Broadaxe wouldn't find anything to love there," Casper thought, as he looked about "Ruth would love the cat,-I don't-I don't like cats. And the geese are as ugly as they can be. Nobody wants anything either, that I can see,— but me, they've got grass enough."

A few months ago these thoughts would have made Casper fretful, and he would have called himself miserable. He didn't feel very bright now, it was rather lonely to stand there looking over the quiet village. But as his eye went from one thing to another, suddenly it found a flock of sheep feeding on the distant hill-side, and the sight of them brought back all the sweet Bible words that Mrs. Cheerful had told him. Casper stood looking down now, thinking strangely and yet pleasantly, how wonderful it was that the Good Shepherd should care about him!

"I wish I was a good child!" he thought, "and then I would never do anything more to displease Him."

"Look! look!" cried a little voice near by.

Casper turned and there stood the little bit of a girl who had asked him for a cake.

"Look!" she repeated.

Well, I am looking," said Casper, "and I don't see anything but you, and you're not very big."

"Cat in i' well," said the child, taking her finger out of her mouth to speak and then putting it back again.

"I don't care," said Casper. “I think I'm glad; I don't like cats."

"My cat," said the child.

But to that Casper made no reply.

"My cat," she repeated, trotting off to the corner of the house. "Come! look;" and at the corner she stopped and waited with her finger in her mouth. "I tell you I don't care," said Casper.

The child's face wrinkled and screwed up in most remarkable style, and two or three tears ran slowly down.

"What are you crying for?" said Casper. "My cat," repeated the child. "Come."

Casper stood still yet a minute longer; but the child looked very miserable-he knew what that meant-and two or three better thoughts of doing as he would be done by, came into his head. So he jumped down from the doorstep and followed the queer little thing who stood waiting for him. She trotted round Casper's house, and along the back of the next one to it, and into a large yard which belonged to the next one still. There to be sure was a well, and down in the well was the cat,-Casper could see her plainly enough. She was not in the water, having got out of that upon the rough stone side of the well; but the well was so deep and the sides so straight, that how to get further the cat was in doubt. She clung to the Casper, while he

wet stones and looked up at

looked down at her; her eyes shining like two coals of fire in the darkness of the well.

"I don't see what I can do, little thing," said Casper. This was addressed to the owner of the cat, not to pussy herself.

"My cat," the child said again.

It was clear that she looked to him to get the cat out; and it was so pleasant to have anybody look up to him for any reason, that Casper at once smiled and said he would try. But how to try was the question.