Page 327.
Gather the Rose-buds while ye may. This piece bears in the original the title of 'La Mère Bontemps,' and the author is anonymous.
Page 329.
The Mother's Birthday. The author of this piece is unknown.
Page 331.
The Complaint of the Afflicted Church. 'This is one of the numerous poems,' says M. Gustave Masson in 'La Lyre Française,' 'suggested by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. It was found a few years ago on the fly-leaf of an old family Bible, and published in the 'Bulletin de la Société du Protestantisme Française' 1853. The reader will find it in 'La Lyre Française' (pp. 8-12), and we have great pleasure in referring him to that volume, as no translation can do adequate justice to the pathos and power of the original poem.
Page 335.
Concluding Sonnet. The writer of these pages has only to add here, that the pieces signed A. are by her dear and only sister Aru, who fell asleep in Jesus on July 23, 1874, at the early age of twenty years. The last piece she translated was Colinette. Had she lived, this book with her help might have been better, and the writer might perhaps have had less reason to be ashamed of it, and less occasion to ask for the reader's indulgence. Alas!
'Of all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these,—It might have been.'
