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USE OF FLOWERS.

In these I find so sweet a home,
That not a wish have I to roam.

A little land to graze my cow,

Whose milk supplies my table;
A warm sty for my good old sow;
And for my nag a stable:

All have their space for food and play,
And all are glad, both I and they.

I feed the poor man in his cot,
The beggar at my gate;

And thankful for my quiet lot,
I envy not the great:

But rather praise my God on high,
Happy to live, prepared to die.

C. Lessingham Smith.

THE USE OF FLOWERS.

GOD might have made the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small;

The oak-tree and the cedar-tree,
Without a flower at all.

He might have made enough-enough
For every want of ours;

USE OF FLOWERS.

For comfort, luxury, and toil;

And yet have made no flowers.

The ore within the mountain mine,
Requireth none to grow;

Nor doth it need the lotus flower-
To make the river flow.

The Clouds might give abundant rain,
The nightly dews might fall;
And the herb that keepeth life in man,
Might yet have drunk them all.

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Then wherefore, wherefore were they made,
All dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night.

Springing in valleys green and lone,
And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness
Where no man passes by!

Our outward life requires them not;-
Then wherefore had they birth;
To minister delight to man;
To beautify the earth!

16

MARIEN'S MISSION.

To comfort man-to whisper hope,
Whene'er his faith is dim,

That he who careth for the flowers,
Will much more care for him!

Mary Howitt.

MARIEN'S MISSION.

No friend at all had Marien,
And at the break of day,

In a lonesome place within the world,
In quiet thought she lay.

The stars were lost in coming morn,
The moon was pale and dim,
And the golden sun was rising,
Over the ocean's rim.

With upturned eye lay Marien ;-
"And I am alone " said she,
Though the blackbird and the nightingale
Sing in the forest tree.

Though the weak woodland creatures
Come to me when I call,

And eat their food from out my hand;
And I am loved by all.

MARIEN'S MISSION.

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Though sun, and moon, and stars, come out,

And flowers of fairest grace,

And whate'er God made beautiful,

Are with me in this place.

Yet I am all alone, alone,
Alone, both night and day!
So I will forth into the world,
And do what good I may.

For many a heart is sorrowful,
And I that heart may cheer;-
And many a weary captive pines
In dungeons dark and drear;-
And I the iron bands may loose,
Then why abide I here.

And many a spirit dark with crime,
Yet longeth to repent;

And many a grievous wrong is done
To the weak and innocent ;-
And I may do the injured right,
May save the penitent!

"Up, 1 will forth into the world!"

And thus as she did

say,

Sweet Marien from the ground rose up, And went forth on her way.

Mary Howitt.

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CORN FIELDS.

CORN FIELDS.

In the young merry time of spring,
When clover 'gins to burst:
When blue-bells nod within the wood,
And sweet May whitens first;
When merle and mavis sing their fill,
Green is the young corn on the hill.
But when the merry spring is past,
And summer groweth bold,
And in the garden and the field,
A thousand flowers unfold;

Before a green leaf yet is sere,
The young corn shoots into the ear.
But then as day and night succeed,
And summer weareth on,
And in the flowery garden-beds,
The red-rose groweth wan,

And hollyhock and sunflowers tall,
O'ertop the mossy garden wall.

When on the breath of autumn's breeze,

From pastures dry and brown,
Goes floating like an idle thought
The fair white thistle-down;

Oh! then what joy to walk at will
Upon the golden harvest hill!