From Slieveleague to Rosses; Or going up with music On cold starry nights, To sup with the queen Of the gay Northern Lights. They stole little Bridget Between the night and morrow; By the craggy hillside, Is any man so daring As dig them up in spite? He shall find their sharpest thorns Up the airy mountain, Pansy-An Allegory.* N a quiet dell there dwelt a little flower of exquisite floweret that it sought the most retired spot of the glade for its home, blooming in its richest colors beneath the shadow of some tall leaf. But it was not long to bloom thus. One day an angel on a mission of love to this earth, passed its hiding place, and brushing aside the Plantain leaf with her wing, there discovered the flower. "Ah," she cried, as she bent over to inhale its fragrance, "thou art lovely, indeed, too lovely to dwell here in solitude alone. I will breathe upon thee and thou shalt have an angel's face. Thou shalt go forth and bloom in every land, and carry with thee sweet thoughts of love and of heaven. Thou shalt grow in beauty; the splendor of thy varied dress shall be a marvel and a joy to all that behold thee." Sealing her promise with a kiss, the angel departed, leaving the imprint of her fair face upon the floweret. In Thus it is that the Pansy has become a herald of joy throughout the land, and even to all civilized people everywhere. In the garden of the quiet country home she has her place, and is tended with loving care. the crowded city mart you see her beaming face, and she smiles so sweetly that not one in that passing throng can resist her. *From Fairy Land of Flowers, by permission of Educational Publishing Co. The First Snow-fall.* JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. HE snow had begun in the gloaming, Had been heaping field and highway Every pine and fir and hemlock From sheds new-roofed with Carrara The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, I stood and watched by the window I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn As did robins the babes in the wood. *By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers. |