"Dear little blossoms down under the snow,
You must be weary of winter, I know;
Hark while I sing you a message of cheer!
Summer is coming, and spring-time is here.
"Little white snowdrops, I pray you arise!
Bright yellow crocus, come, open your eyes!
Sweet little violets, hid from the cold,
Put on your mantles of purple and gold!
Daffodils! daffodils! say, do you hear ?—
Summer is coming, and spring-time is here."

MOOLY' cow, mooly cow, home from the wood,
They sent me to fetch you as fast as I could;
The sun has gone down ; it is time to go home-
Mooly cow, mooly cow, why don't you come ?
Your udders are full, and the milk-maid is there,
And the children all waiting their supper to share.
I have let the long bars2 down-why don't you pass
through ?"

The mooly cow only said, "Moo-o-o!"

"Mooly cow, mooly cow, have you not been
Regaling all day where the pastures are green ?
No doubt it was pleasant, dear Mooly, to see
The clear running brook and the wide-spreading tree,
The clover to crop, and the streamlet to wade,
To drink the cool water and lie in the shade;
But now it is night-they are waiting for you."
The mooly cow only said, "Moo-0-0! "

mooly, a cow without horns.

2 bars. In America, wooden bars are used in many places instead of gates. 8 regaling, feasting.

"Mooly cow, mooly cow, where do you go

When all the green pastures are covered with snow?
You go to the barn, and we feed you with hay,
And the maid goes to milk you there, every day;

She pats you, she loves you, she strokes your sleek hide
She speaks to you kindly, and sits by your side :
Then come along home, pretty mooly cow, do."
The mooly cow only said, "Moo-o-o!"
"Mooly cow, mooly cow, whisking your tail,
The milk-maid is waiting, I say, with her pail;
She tucks up her petticoats, tidy and neat,
And places the three-legged stool for her seat :
What can you be staring at, Mooly? You know
That we ought to have gone home an hour ago.
How dark it is growing!-O, what shall I do?”
The mooly cow only said, "Mo0-0-0!"

64

THE SQUIRRELS.

RETTY Fifine and Jack lived up in a tree
Very happy and free;

Their house was a hole, in the trunk

hollowed out,

And well furnished,' no doubt;

Their carpet was velvet, red, russet and

green

Not such as is seen

In cities, imported from over the seas;

But from rocks and from trees,

They gathered bright mosses and spread them with

care

In their parlour so fair.

I furnished, stocked with furniture.

Beneath this small parlour their cellar was stored
With ripe nuts, a nice hoard;2

And their couch was of thistle-down, silky and warm,
Where, quite safe from the storm,

They laughed at the roaring wind, fierce in the fight,
All the long winter's night.

Now when Spring-time returned, and, from tiny
green hoods,

Peeped the flowers of the woods,

While aroma of spice-wood and sassafras trees

Perfumed sweetly the breeze,

And the notes of the wild bird did joyously ring
Out a welcome to Spring;

Said Jack to his mate, "Through the denses woods

I'll go,

Where the winter greens grow,

And glean a few berries kept safe 'neath the snow,
In scarlet to glow."

"And while you're away," answered Fifine "I'll clean
Our house fit for the queen."

"Then when I return, I will bring a nice treat
For my own queen to eat."

So away bounded Jack, light-hearted and gay,

For his work seemed but play;

'Mid star-flowers and ferns to search for a treasure

Would simply be pleasure.

'Twas twilight, and Fifine, to gather some dew,

Placed acorn cups two.

The dear little housewife next put things in order,
And then from the larder,

Brought walnuts all shelled, and a few grains of wheat,
By way of a treat;

Lastly, in from the starlight the acorn cups bore,
With dew brimming o'er.

Then she sat down to wait, and lists to the breeze
Singing low through the trees;

And grew lonely and anxious, and tired and afraid,
And shrank from each shade

That the stir of a leaflet flung over her eyes,
Till the dawn in the skies

Grew golden and rosy; when, thinking Jack dead,
She with grief bowed her head.

PART II.

N the banks of a stream Jack loitered' all day,

With comrades2 at play;

Unmindful of duty, he ne'er sought

a berry,

But made himself merry;

'Mong violets fragant, white, yellow,

and blue,

How swift the time flew;

Till out of the sky the last sunbeam was gone,

And night coming on,

O'ertaken by darkness, Jack speeds like the wind
Through the forest, to find

A short route for home. In the gloom he espics
Two great fiery eyes ;*

8 list, listen.

loiter, to linger, to stay idly. 3 unmindful, thoughtless. 5 fiery eyes, the eyes of an owl.

9 leaflet, a little leaf.

2 comrade, a companion.

4 fragrant, having a sweet smell.

6

With a rushing of wings the ogre swoops low-
A pitiless foe-

With talons and beak sharp whetteds for prey,
Poor Jack he would slay.

The struggle was fierce. With a jerk and a bound
Jack was free! Then he found,

Underneath a stone wall, a safe shelter all night;
Where, half dead with the fright,

And wounded and bleeding he waited till day,

Then, for home crawled away—

So sore and so weary, the journey did seem

Like a terrible dream!

At last he arrived to find Fifine in grief,

But glad for relief.

"I deceived you," moaned Jack, "my fate I deserve, Thus from my duty to swerve!

But vain this regret!

While yet I do live!"

Oh, my dearest forgive,

"I have nought to forgive," was her loving reply, "And you must not die."

With care Jack recovered, and never again

Caused Fifine such pain:

And so they lived happy as happy could be
In their house up the tree.

BUT pleasures are like poppies spread;
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow-falls in the river,

A moment white-then melts for ever!

ogre, a terrible monster.

whetted, sharpened.

7 talons, claws.

're covered, got better.