SNOWFLAKES. 
Falling all the night-time, 
Falling- all the day, 
Silent into silence, 
From the far-away; 
Stilly host unnumbered, 
All the night and day 
Falling, falling, falling, 
From the far-away, — 
Never came like glory 
To the fields and trees, 
Never summer blossoms 
Thick and white as these. 
To the dear old places 
Winging night and day, 
Follow, follow, follow, 
Fold them soft away; 
Folding, folding, folding, 
Fold the world away, 
Souls of flowers drifting 
Down the winter day. 
—John Vance Cheney. 
A TIMELY WARNING. 
WHILE a British brig was gliding 
smoothly along before a good 
breeze in the South Pacific, a 
flock of small birds about the 
size, shape, and color of paroquets set- 
tled down in the rigging and passed an 
hour or more resting. The second 
mate was so anxious to find out the 
species to which the visiting strangers 
belonged that he tried to entrap a spec- 
imen, but the birds were too shy 
to be thus caught and too spry to be 
seized by the quick hands of the sailors. 
At the end of about an hour the birds 
took the brig's course, and disappeared, 
but towards nightfall they came back 
and passed the night in the main-top. 
The next morning the birds flew off 
again, and when they returned at noon 
the sailors scattered some food about 
the decks. By this time the birds had j 
become so tame that they hopped about 
the decks, picking up the crumbs. That 
afternoon an astonishing thing hap- 
pened. The flock came flying swiftly 
toward the brig. Every bird seemed 
to be piping as if pursued by some little 
invisible enemy on wings, and they at 
once huddled down behind the deck- 
house. The superstitious sailors at 
once called the captain of the brig, 
who rubbed his eyes and looked at the 
barometer. A glance showed that 
something was wrong with the elements 
and the brig was put in shape to out- 
ride a storm. The storm came down 
about twenty minutes after the birds 
had reached the vessel. For a few min- 
utes the sky was like the waterless bot- 
tom of a lake — a vast arch of yellowish 
mud — and torrents of rain fell. Why 
it did not blow very hard, no one knows; 
but on reaching port, two days later, 
the captain learned that a great tor- 
nado had swept across that part of the 
sea. The birds left the vessel on the 
morning after the storm and were not 
seen again. 
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