"I don't care much about your wings: So keep your wings just where they are.' She minced1 some apples, gave a smack, The bird spread out his wings, and flew, * 52 * DAYBREAK. SEE the day begins to break, And the light shoots like a streak Many a note and many a lay. J. FLETCHER. 1 minced, nibbled. 2 subtle, rare, delicate. 8 erst, before, till now. * 53 * CHOICE STANZAS. HE prayeth best who loveth best S. T. Coleridge. IF Wisdom's ways you'd wisely seek, THE bird that soars on highest wing Builds on the ground her lowly nest; And she that doth most sweetly sing Sings in the shade when all things rest. In lark and nightingale we see What honor hath humility. J. Montgomery. · TINY threads make up the web, Spin them rightly while you can. BE not false, unkind, or cruel; HOWE'ER it be, it seems to me Kind hearts are more than coronets, THE best revenge is love: Alfred Tennyson. disarm Anger with smiles; heal wounds with balm; Give water to thy thirsting foe: S. C. Wilkes. IF e'er in doing aught, you dread THERE'S a tone in the deep Like the murmuring breath of a lion asleep. Eliza Cook. * 54 * AN HONEST NAME. THOUGH many be more rich than we However hard our lot, we'll guard Though on this earth all pomp of birth Yet every man, if honest, can Have wealth that none may take away. * 55 * SPRING-TIME. THE Spring is come; the Spring is come! The brooks are merrily pouring ; And the lambs are here, and the swallows appear, And the lark aloft is soaring. Old Winter is gone; old Winter is gone! And, pray, what prevented his stay? Why, March was his bane; 2 and the April rain Has driven him quite away. 1 dross, worthless matter, here gold. 2 bane, harm. Look at the birds, the dear little birds! They're singing on every bough, And strain their throats with the blithest notes Come to the fields, away to the fields! We've lingered at home too long: Never forget, child, never forget, Who it was made the world so fair, Who with flowers and trees, and mountains and seas, Made it beautiful everywhere. FROM THE GERMAN. * 56 * LAPLAND. "WITH blue, cold nose, and wrinkled brow, Traveller, whence comest thou?" "From Lapland's woods and hills of frost By the rapid reindeer crossed; Where tapering grows the gloomy fir And the stunted juniper; Where the wild hare and the crow Where the shivering huntsmen tear His fur coat from the grim, white bear; |