For at her wild and gushing strain,
   The spirit was led back
By windings of a silver chain,
   On many a long-lost track;
And many a quick unbidden sigh,
   And starting tear, revealed
How surely at her touch the springs
   Of feeling were unsealed;
They who were always loved, seemed now
   Yet more than ever dear;
Yet closer to the heart they came,
   That ever were so near:
And, trembling to the silent lips,
   As if they ne'er had changed
Their names, returned in kindness back
   The severed and estranged;
And in the strain, like those that fall
   On wanderers as they roam,
The Exiled Spirit found once more
   Its country and its home!

She ceased, yet on her parted lips
   A happy smile abode,
As if the sweetness of her song
   Yet lingered whence it flowed;
But, for a while, her bosom heaved,
   She was the same no more,
The light and spirit fled; she stood
   As she had stood before;
Unheard, unheeded to her ear
   The shouts of rapture came,
A voice had once more power to thrill,
   That only spoke her name.
Unseen, unheeded at her feet,
   Fell many a bright bouquet;
A single flower, in silence given,
   Was once more sweet than they;
Her heart had with her song returned
   To days for ever gone,
Ere Woman's gift of Fame was her's,
   The Many for the One.

E'en thus, 0, Earth, before thee
   Thy Poet Singers stand,
And bear the soul upon their songs
   Unto its native land.
And even thus, with loud acclaim,
   The praise of skill, of art,
Is dealt to those who only speak
   The language of the heart!
While they who love and listen best,
   Can little guess or know
The wounds that from the Singer's breast
   Have bid such sweetness flow;
They know not mastership must spring
   From conflict and from strife.
"These, these are but the songs they sing;
   They are the Singer's life!

A LITTLE PLACE IN NORFOLK.

THEODORE HOOK'S hero, Jack Bragg, boasted
of his " little place in Surrey." The Guardians
of the Guiltcross poor have good reason to
be proud of their little place in Norfolk.
When the Guiltcross Union was formed, Mr.
Thomas Rackham, master of the "house,"
set aside a small estate for the purpose
of teaching the Workhouse children how to
cultivate land. This pauper's patrimony
consisted of exactly one acre one rood and
thirty-five poles of very rough " country."
A certain number of the boys worked upon
it  so diligently, that it was soon found
expedient to enlarge the domain, by joining to
it three acres of "hills and holes," which in
that state were quite useless for agricultural
purposes. Two dozen spades were purchased
at the outset to commence digging the land
with, and six wheel-barrows were made by a
pauper, who was a wheelwright; pickaxes
and other tools were also fashioned with the
assistance of the porter, who was a blacksmith.
By means of these tools, and the labour of
some fourteen sturdy boys, the whole of this
barren territory was levelled, the top sward
being carefully kept uppermost. We copy
these and the other details from Mr.
Rackham's report to the Guardians, for the
information and encouragement of other Work-
house masters, who may have the will and the
power to "go and do likewise."

It appears then, that by the autumn of 1846
one acre of the new land was planted with
wheat, and two roods twenty three poles of
the home land—the one acre one rood and
thirty-five poles mentioned above—was also
planted with wheat, making in all one acre
two roods and twenty-three poles under wheat
for 1847. This laud produced eighteen coombs
three pecks beyond a sufficient quantity
reserved for seed for the wheat crop of 1848.
The remainder of the land was planted with
Scotch kale, cabbages, potatoes, &c., &c., which
began coming into use in March, 1847. The
entire domain is now under fruitful cultivation.

"The quantity of vegetables actually
consumed by the paupers according to the dietary
tables only," says Mr. Rackham, " is charged
in the provision accounts. Persons acquainted
with domestic management and the produce
of land are aware that, where vegetables are
purchased, a great deal is paid for that which
is useless for cooking purposes. In the present
case this refuse is carefully preserved and
used for feeding pigs, which were first kept
in April 1848. This accounts for the large
amount of pork fatted, as compared with the
small quantity of corn and pollard used for
the pigs. The leaves, &c., not eaten by the
pigs, become valuable manure. If the
Guardians would consent to keep cows,
different roots and vegetables might be grown
to feed them with; and these would produce
an increased quantity of manure, whilst an
increased quantity of manure would afford
the means of raising a larger amount of roots
and green crops, and secure a more extended
routine in cropping the land. This would
add to the profit of the land account, and
give much additional comfort to the aged
people and the young children in the work-
house." But Mr. Rackham is ambitious of a
dairy, chiefly for the training of dairy-maids:
who would become doubly acceptable as farm
servants.

Besides other advantages, the experiment
presents one dear to the minds of rate-payers
—it tends to reduce the rates. The average