FOR CHILDREN. 9

INVITATION TO A ROBIN.

Litte bird, with bosom red,
Welcome to my humble shed!

Daily near my table steal,

While I take my scanty meal ;

Doubt not, little though there be,

But I'll cast a crumb to thee ;

Well rewarded if I spy

Pleasure in thy glancing eye,

And see thee when thou’st had thy fill,
Plume thy breast, and wipe thy bill.

Come, my feathered friend, again,
Well thou know’st the broken pane;
Ask of me thy daily store,
Ever welcome to my ‘door.
Langhorne.

 

THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL

Come, take up your hats, and away let us haste,
To the Butterfly’s ball and the Grasshopper’s feast;
‘The trumpeter Gad-fly has summoned the crew,
And the revels are now only waiting for you.

On the smooth-shaven grass, by the side of a wood,
Beneath a broad oak, which for ages had stood,
See the children of earth, and the tenants of air,
For an evening’s amusement together repair :

And there came the Beetle, so blind and so black,
Who carried the Emmet, his friend, on his back ;
And there came the Gnat, and the Dragon-fly too
And all their relations, green, orange, and blue.