FOR CHILDREN, 27
The young birds had met on St. Valentine’s feast,'
All eager to get married ;
But the sullen saint refused to be priest ;—
For another red-day* they tarried.

The crocus had put forth its feelers green,
But drew in its head in affright,

On hearing the peas, as soon as seen,
Had been all cut off in a night.

The lilac gay that‘loves to be first,
Stood shivering still and pouting,
And many a bud was longing to burst,

But its orders, as yet, was doubting.

And the queen of the season, so ill did she feel,
She again took to bed in pure sorrow ;
But the sun has been called in, her sickness to heal,
And we hope she’ll be better to-morrow.
Conder.

 

THE IRISH HARPER AND HIS DOG.

Ow the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah
was nigh,

No blithe Irish lad was so happy as I;

- No harp like my own could so cheerily play,

And wherever I went was my poor dog, Tray.

1 8t. Valentine’s Feast—the 14th of February. About this
time is the usual season for the pairing of birds.
® Red-day—feast-day, so called because the names of such

days used to be particularly marked in the almanacs, by being
printed in red lettera,