134 THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS.

It was for the Lord of Paradise

He bound them in his sheaves.

"My Lord has need of these flow'rets gay," The Reaper said, and smiled; "Dear tokens of the earth are they, Where He was once a child.

"They shall all bloom in fields of light,
Transplanted by my care,

And saints, upon their garments white,
These sacred blossoms wear."

And the mother gave, in tear and pain,
The flowers she most did love;
She knew she would find them all again,
In the fields of light above.

Oh, not in cruelty,—not in wrath,
The Reaper came that day;
'Twas an angel visited the green earth,
And took the flowers away.

Chink ye twas meant that man should find no spell.

THINK ye 'twas spell

meant that man should find no

Of joy and beauty in the song-bird's lay?
Oh, were the bright flowers only meant to tell
A warning tale of bloom that must decay?

Were it not worse than vain to close our eyes,
Unto the azure
sky and golden light,

Because the tempest-cloud doth sometimes rise,
And glorious day must darken into night?

Wiser and better, with a thankful mind,
To bless our God for every glory given,
And with a gentle heart, to seek and find,

In things

on earth, a type of things in Heaven.

The Snow-flake."

BY H. GOULD.

"Now if I fall, will it be my lot,
To be cast on some low and lonely spot,
To melt, and sink unseen or forgot;

And then will my course be ended?
'Twas thus that a feathery snow-flake said,
As down through the measureless space it strayed,
Or, as half by dalliance, half afraid,

It seemed in mid-air suspended.

"O no," said the Earth, "thou shalt not lie,
Neglected and lone, on my lap to die,
Thou pure and delicate child of the sky,

For thou wilt be safe in my keeping;
But then I must give thee a lovelier form:
Thou'lt not be a part of the wintry storm,

But revive, when the sunbeams are yellow and warm,

And the flowers from my bosom are peeping.

THE

SNOW-FLAKE.

137

And then thou shalt have thy choice, to be
Restored in the lily that decks the lea,
In the jessamine bloom, the anemone,

Or aught of thy spotless whiteness,

To melt and be cast in a glittering bead

With the pearls that the night scatters over the mead, In the cup where the bee and the fire-fly feed, Regaining thy dazzling brightness;

"To wake, and be raised from thy transient sleep,
When Viola's mild blue eye shall weep,
In a tremulous tear, or a diamond leap,

In a drop from the unlocked fountain;
Or, leaving the valley, the meadow, and heath,
The streamlet, the flower, and all beneath,
To go and be wove in the silvery wreath
Encircling the brow of the mountain.

Or, wouldst thou return to thy home in the skies, To shine in the Iris, I'll let thee arise,

And appear in the many and glorious dyes,
A pencil of sunbeam is blending;

But true, fair thing, as my name is Earth,
I'll give thee a new and a vernal birth,
When thou shalt recover thy primal worth,
And never regret descending."

138

THE SNOW-FLAKE.

"Then I will drop," said the trusting flake; "But bear it in mind, that the choice I make, Is not in the flowers, nor the dew to awake,

Nor the mist that shall pass with the morning; For, things of thyself, they expire with thee, But those that are lent from on high, like me, They rise, and will live, from thy dust set free, To the regions above returning.

"And if true to thy word and just, thou art, Like the spirit that dwells in the holiest heart, Unsullied by thee, thou wilt let me depart,

And return to my native heaven;

For I would be placed in the beautiful bow,
From time to time, in thy sight to glow,
So thou may'st remember the 'flake of snow,'
By the promise that God has given."