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When but a little piece of bread
To one who needs is given,

Though history may not mark the deed, 'Tis chronicled1 in heaven.

H. P. BIDDLE.

* 86 *

THE LAW OF CHARITY.

OH! never let us lightly fling

A barb 2 of woe to wound another;
Oh! never let us haste to bring
The cup of sorrow to a brother.

Each has the power to wound; but he
Who wounds that he may witness pain.
Has spurned the law of charity,
Which ne'er inflicts a pang in vain.

'Tis godlike to awaken joy,

Or sorrow's influence to subdue;
But not to wound or to annoy
Is part of virtue's lesson too.

Peace, winged in fairer worlds above,
Shall lend her dawn to brighten this;
Then all man's labor shall be love,

And all his aim his brother's bliss.

1 chronicled, recorded, known.

2 barb, the sharp shoulders of an arrow-head.

T. GISBORNE.

106 SELECT POETRY FOR YOUNG FOLKS.

* 87 *

PROVIDENCE.

Lo, the lilies of the field,

How their leaves instruction yield!
Hark to Nature's lesson given
By the blessed birds of heaven!
Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy:
Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow,
God provideth for the morrow.

Say, with richer crimson glows
The kingly mantle than the rose?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we citizens of air?

Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
Yet we carol merrily.

Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow,
God provideth for the morrow.

One there lives, whose guardian eye
Guides our humble destiny;
One there lives, who, Lord of all,
Keeps our feathers lest they fall.

Pass we blithely then the time,
Fearless of the snare and lime,

Free from doubt and faithless sorrow:

God provideth for the morrow.

REGINALD HEBER.

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Select Poetry for Young Folks.

* 1 *

THE TREE.

THE Tree's early leaf-buds were bursting their brown:

"Shall I take them away?" said the Frost, sweep

ing down.

"No, leave them alone

Till the blossoms have grown,'

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Prayed the Tree, while he trembled from rootlet1

to crown.

The Tree bore his blossoms, and all the birds

sung:

"Shall I take them away?" said the Wind as he swung.

"No, leave them alone

Till the berries have grown,"

Said the Tree, while his leaflets 2 quivering hung.

1 rootlet, little root.

2 leaflet, little leaf.

3

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