mistletoe. 
197 
Faintly — faintly—oh ! how faintly 
I feel life’s pulses ebb and flow : 
Yet sorrow, I know thou dealest daintily 
With one who should not wish to live moe. 
Nay ! why, young heart, thus timidly shrinking, 
A\hy doth thy upward wing thus tire ? 
Y by aie thy pinions so droopingly sinking, 
When they should only waft thee higher P 
Upward—upward let them be waving, 
Lifting the soul toward her place of birth : 
There are guerdons there, more worth thy having_ 
Far more than any these lures of the earth. 
mistletoe. 
(/ surmount Difficulties.) 
“The sacred bush.”— Tennyson. 
n^HE Mistletoe scarcely requires more than a passing 
allusion ; every one is acquainted with that re¬ 
markable custom which permits any lad to exact from 
any hiss the toll of one kiss, when they accidentally meet 
where 
Sacred ceilings, dark and gray, 
Bear the mistletoe.” 
In Holstein the country people call the mistletoe “ the 
specters wand,” from the supposition that holding a 
branch of it will not only enable a man to see ghosts, 
but force them to speak to him. 
