"And looking down upon the world,
How sweetly I would sing!
I'd float along so happily,
Forever on the wing.

"I wish I were a little bird,
I am not happy here.
Pray, dear Mamma, a story tell,
Your little girl to cheer."

Her mother gravely said to her,
"I'll tell you of a child,
Who had a kind and gentle heart.
A temper, sweet and mild.

"She had a pleasant, happy home,

And health to make her glad;

Playthings, and books, and pictures too, This little creature had.

26

THE DISCONTENTED CHILD.

"A father's and a mother's love,
Shone round her, night and day,
In health or sickness, or in sleep,
In study or in play.

"Blessings of every kind were hers,
That are to childhood given ;

And above all the rest, she had
A Father kind, in heaven.

"And yet this little silly child,
Perhaps you may have heard,
Rejected all this happiness,

And wished she was a bird."

THE CHILD WHO LOVED THE SKY,

I knew a little girl who loved the sky,
In all its changes and variety.

In a fair garden, would she sit for hours

On a green bank, among the grass and flowers;
And upward look into the air so blue,
Admiring its clear depths, and azure hue.
She loved it in its misty morning dress,
And in its evening robes of gorgeousness.
The fair young moon was like a friend to her,
As it sunk downward with the evening star.
She with delight beheld the rising cloud,
And saw the flash, and heard the thunder loud;
And she would watch it in its majesty,

As it came darkly rolling o'er the sky.

But best of all she loved the sky of night,

When the still stars came forth in troops so bright,

And all the brightest she would fondly name

For friends she loved the best, when evening came. She named one for her Mother, and that star

Was ever to her a sweet comforter,

For soon upon her Mother's grave it shone.

And now, though years have fled, and time has gone,
And childish fancies all away have passed,

Yet will this sweet remembrance always last.
And that pale star is dearer than the rest,

Because it bore the name of her who loved her best.

TRUTH.

Diamonds are glittering and bright and rare,
Truth is the diamond that I would wear:
Stars shine with light that is fairer than day,
Truth is the star that shall lighten my way.