69. THE OLD MAN'S COMFORTS, AND HOW HE GAINED THEM. You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are grey; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man, Now tell me the reason, I pray?" "In the days of my youth," Father William replied, "I remember'd that youth would fly fast, And abused not my health and my vigour at first, That I never might need them at last.' "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "And pleasures with youth pass away, And yet you lament not the days that are gone, Now tell me the reason, I pray?" "In the days of my youth," Father William replied, I remember'd that youth could not last; I thought of the future, whatever I did, That I never might grieve for the past." "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "And life must be hastening away; You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death! Now tell me the reason, I pray ?" "I am cheerful, young man," Father William replied, "Let the cause thy attention engage; In the days of my youth I remember'd my God! And He hath not forgotten my age!" Southey. 70.-THE PET PLANT. A florist a sweet little blossom espied, Which bloom'd, like its ancestors, by the road side; Its colours were simple, its charms they were few, Yet the flower looked fair on the spot where it grew; The florist beheld it, and cried, "I'll enchant He carried it home to his hot-house with care, And he said, "though the rarest exotics [1] are there, My little pet plant, when I've nourish'd its stem, In tint and in fragrance shall emulate them, Though none shall suspect from the roadside it came; Rhodum Sidum I'll call it—a beautiful name- The little pet plant, when it shook off the dirt [1] Exotics-foreign plants. But when it assumes hot-house airs we see through The forced tint of its leaves, and suspect that it grew Under a hedge. In the bye-ways of life, oh! how many there are, And bloom in a hot-house instead of a ditch! pert, We soon trace them to their original dirt Under a hedge. 71.-GOD PROVIDETH FOR THE Lo, the lilies of the field, How their leaves instruction yield! Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow : "Say, with richer crimson glows Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow! "One there lives, whose guardian eye Heber. 72. THE HUMMING-BIRD. The humming-bird! the humming-bird! It lives among the sunny flowers, In the radiant islands of the East, A thousand, thousand humming-birds Like living fires they flit about, And through the fan palm tree. And in those wild and verdant woods, Where hangs from branching tree to tree [1] Lime-birdlime, a substance used by birdcatchers. Where on the mighty river banks, La Plate and Amazon, The cayman, [1] like an old tree trunk, There builds her nest the humming-bird, Within the ancient wood, Her nest of silky cotton down, She hangs it to a slender twig, All crimson is her shining breast, Her wing is the changeful green and blue Thou, happy, happy humming-bird, A reign of summer joyfulness Thy food, the honey from the flower, [1] Cayman-the American alligator. [2] Campanero--a West Indian bird whose note may be heard nearly three miles off like the toll of a distant convent bell. [3] Compare this with the last verse but one of No. 6, 66 The Cuckoo." |