BIRDS.

In the happy Spring I'll come,
And deck your silent home,
Creeping, silently creeping everywhere.

Here I come, creeping, creeping everywhere:
My humble song of praise

Most gratefully I raise

To Him at whose command

I beautify the land,

Creeping, silently creeping everywhere.

81

SARAH ROBERTS.

BIRDS.

O, THE sunny summer time!
O, the leafy summer time!
Merry is the bird's life,

When the year is in its prime!
Birds are by the waterfalls

Dashing in the rainbow spray;
Everywhere, everywhere,

Light and lovely there are they!
Birds are in the forest old,

Building in each hoary tree;
Birds are on the green hills;
Birds are by the sea!

On the moor and in the fen,
'Mong the whortleberries green;
In the yellow furze-bush,

There the joyous bird is seen;
In the heather, on the hill;

All among the mountain thyme;
By the little brook-sides,

Where the sparkling waters chime;
In the crag; and on the peak,
Splintered, savage, wild, and bare,
There the bird with wild wing
Wheeleth through the air.

Wheeleth through the breezy air,
Singing, screaming in his flight,
Calling to his bird-mate,

In a troubleless delight!
In the green and leafy wood,

Where the branching ferns up-curl,

Soon as is the dawning,

Wakes the mavis and the merle;
Wakes the cuckoo on the bough;

Wakes the jay with ruddy breast;
Wakes the mother ringdove
Brooding on her nest!

O, the sunny summer-time!

O, the leafy summer-time!
Merry is the bird's life

When the year is in its prime !

SUMMER WOODS.

Some are strong and some are weak;
Some love day and some love night;
But whate'er a bird is,

Whate'er loves it has delight
In the joyous song it sings;
In the liquid air it cleaves;

In the sunshine, in the shower,
In the nest it weaves!

MARY HOWITT

SUMMER WOODS.

COME ye into the summer woods;
There entereth no annoy;

All greenly wave the chestnut leaves,
And the earth is full of joy.

I cannot tell you half the sights
Of beauty you may see,
The bursts of golden sunshine,
And many a shady tree.

There, lightly swung, in bowery glades,
The honeysuckles twine;

There blooms the rose-red campion,

And the dark-red columbine.

83

84

SUMMER WOODS.

There grows the four-leaved plant "true-love,"
In some dusk woodland spot;
There grows the enchanter's night-shade,
And the wood forget-me-not.

And many a merry bird is there,
Unscared by lawless men ;

The blue-winged jay, the woodpecker,
And the golden-crested wren.

Come down, and ye shall see them all,
The timid and the bold;

For their sweet life of pleasantness,
It is not to be told.

And far within that summer-wood,
Among the leaves so green,
There flows a little gurgling brook,
The brightest e'er was seen.

There come the little gentle birds,
Without a fear of ill;

Down to the murmuring water's edge
And freely drink their fill!

And dash about and splash about,

The merry little things;

And look askance with bright black eyes,

And flirt their dripping wings.

SUMMER WOODS.

I've seen the freakish squirrels drop
Down from their leafy tree,
The little squirrels with the old,-
Great joy it was to me!

And down unto the running brook
I've seen them nimbly go;

And the bright water seemed to speak
A welcome kind and low.

The nodding plants they bow their heads,
As if, in heartsome cheer,
They spake unto those little things,
""T is merry living here!"

O, how my heart ran o'er with joy!
I saw that all was good,

And how we might glean up delight
All round us, if we would!

And many a wood-mouse dwelleth there,
Beneath the old wood-shade,
And all day long has work to do,

Nor is of aught afraid.

The green shoots grow above their heads,
And roots so fresh and fine

Beneath their feet, nor is there strife

'Mong them for mine and thine.

85