THE HIGHLAND HILLS.

The Highland hills! there are songs of mirth,

And joy, and love on the gladsome earth;

For Spring, in her queenly robes, hath smiled

In the forest glade and the woodland wild.

Then come with me from the haunts of men

To the glassy lake in the mountain glen,

Where sunshine sleeps on the dancing rills

That chainless leap from the Highland hills.

The Highland hills! when the sparkling rays

Of the silver dews greet the orient blaze,

When noon comes forth with her gorgeous glow,

While the fountains leap and the rivers flow,

Thou wilt roam with me where the waterfalls

Bid echo wake in the rocky halls,

Till the grandeur wild to thy heart instils

A deep delight 'mid the Highland hills.

The Highland hills! when the noonday smiles

On the slumbering lakes and their fairy isles,

We 'll clamber high where the heather waves

By the warrior's cairn and the foemen's graves;

And I 'll sing to thee, in "the bright day's prime,"

Of the days of old and of ancient time,

And thy heart, unknown to the care that chills,

Shall gladly joy in the Highland hills.

The Highland hills! in the twilight dim

To their heath-clad crests shall thy footsteps climb,

And there shalt thou gaze o'er the ocean far,

Till the beacon blaze of the evening star,

And the lamp of night, with its virgin beams,

Look down on the deep and the shining streams,

Till beauty's spell on thy spirit thrills

With joy and love in the Highland hills.