by the old schoolmaster long ago) she folded her hands, and murmured,

"Nisi Dominus urbem custodiat, frustra vigilat custos."
(Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but
in vain.)

And then she slept also.

The snow fell softly on the roof, and on the walls of the old church
outside, and on the pavement of the street of the poet's native town,
and the night passed and the day came.

There is little more to tell, for that night was the last night of his
sorrowful humble childhood, and that day was the first day of his
fame.

* * * * *

The Duke of ---- was an enlightened and generous man, and a munificent
patron of the Arts and Sciences, and of literary and scientific men.
He was not exactly a genius, but he was highly accomplished. He wrote
a little, and played a little, and drew a little; and with fortune to
befriend him, as a natural consequence he published a little, and
composed a little, and framed his pictures.

But what was better and more remarkable than this, was the generous
spirit in which he loved and admired those who did great things in the
particular directions in which he did a little. He bought good
pictures while he painted bad ones; and those writers, musicians, and
artists who could say but little for his performances, had every