"If I were a sunbeam,
I know where I'd go:
Into lowliest hovels,

Dark with want and woe:
Till sad hearts looked upward,
I would shine and shine;
Then they'd think of heaven,
Their sweet home and mine."

Art thou not a sunbeam,

Child whose life is glad
With an inner radiance

Sunshine never had?
Oh, as God has blessed thee,

Scatter rays divine!

For there is no sunbeam

But must die, or shine.

-Lucy Larcom.

SPRING HARBINGERS.

UR Mother Earth is in her loom,

OUR

A-weaving night and day;

Her new spring carpet must be done
Before the month of May!

Just see the stripes of red, and green,
Of yellow, brown, and blue!

In

warp and woof I've never seen A web of such rare hue.

Our grand snow king is melting down,

And never more will rise;

The icicles that spike his crown

Have dwindled, too, in size;

And busy fingers I behold,

That weave with fairy floss,
As on the bare rocks, hard and cold,
They spread their mats across.

My heart leaps high, as, far and wide,
Where'er I chance to stray,

I find sweet harbingers that hide
Their elfin forms away,

Down deep within the tangled woods,
With that bright swarm of bees,
The birds, the butterflies, the buds,
That seek such haunts as these.

Weave on, weave on, dear Mother Earth,
Thy carpet warm and bright,

Of warp and woof thou hast no dearth;
And oh, with what delight

We'll make its folds spread o'er the land
In length and breadth complete;
And praise the kind and loving hand

That placed it 'neath our feet.

- Selected.

As

THE SEED.

S wonderful things are hidden away
In the heart of a little brown seed,
As ever were found in the fairy net
Of which children sometimes read.

Over its pretty shining coat

We sprinkle the earth so brown, And the sunshine warms its lowly bed, And the rain comes dropping down.

Patter, patter, the soft, warm rain
Knocks at the tiny door,

And two little heads come peeping out,
Like a story in fairy lore.

One is the Caulicle creeping down,
At the first but a wee white root;
The other the Plumule; above the soil
It sends up a little green shoot.

Steadily up toils the slender stem,
And only its work it heeds;

A leaf appears, buds, blossoms, and fruit,
Last of all come the little seeds.

Then its work all done, if an annual,
It has had its brief, bright day,

And now at the touch of the Frost-king's breath

It withers and fades away.

Selected.

WINGED SEEDS.

H, gold-green wings, and bronze-green wings,
And rose-tinged wings, that down the breeze

Come sailing from the maple trees!

You showering things, you shimmering things,
That June-time always brings!

Oh, are you seeds that seek the earth,
The shade of lovely leaves to spread?
Or shining angels, that had birth
When kindly words were said?

Oh, downy dandelion wings,
Wild-floating wings like silver spun,
That dance and glisten in the sun!
You airy things, you elfin things,
That June-time always brings!

Oh, are you seeds that seek the earth,
The light of laughing flowers to spread?
Or flitting fairies, that had birth

When merry words were said?

- Helen Gray Cone-St. Nicholas.

NATURE'S THOUGHTFULNESS.

So busy is the dear old earth,

A-weaving million tresses

And making for her forest-trees
The freshest of new dresses;

A-spreading carpets o'er the dales
Embroidered with sweet posies,

A-molding petals velvet soft,
And making up her roses :

So busy is the dear old earth
Her spreading meadows over,
A-storing honey in the cells
Of her vast fields of clover:
A-carving scarlet lily cups,
A setting blue-bells ringing,
And teaching all her baby birds
The newest rules of singing;
So busy is the dear old earth
Through every summer morning:-
Pray tell me why this eager haste,
This marvelous adorning,

The fringed petals, tinted cups,
The wondrous variation?
Methinks she's getting ready for

Her boys' and girls' vacation.

-M. F. Butts.

DOWN

WORK.

OWN and up, and up and down,
Over and over and over;

Turn in the little seed, dry and brown,

Turn out the bright red clover.

Work, and the sun your work will share,
And the rain in its time will fall;
For Nature, she worketh everywhere,
And the grace of God through all.

With hand on the spade and heart in the sky,
Dress the ground and till it;