[Illustration: "HOPE DEFERRED."

CHORUS OF LONGING LADS. "WISH _WE_ COULD GO TO THE COUNTRY!"]

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[Illustration: EVOLUTIONARY ASSIMILATION.

_A Story of Signor Piatti and his 'Cello._]

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SUNDAY AT HOME.

The stillness of the Summer day
Broods o'er the country sweet,
And all things, save the murmuring stream,
Are silent in the heat.
The sunbeams through the green leaves play,
The air is sweet with new-mown hay--
But I am bound at home to stay
Here in Great Gasworks Street.

On the fourth-floor I take the air,
And hear the trains roll by,
And dream of all the visions fair
That o'er the housetops lie;
The meadows where the daisies stray,
The bleating sheep, as white as they,
The breakers and the sparkling spray,