FOR CHILDREN. 57

A SNAKE IN THE GRASS:
A TALE FOUNDED ON FACTS.

Sue had a secret of her own,

That little girl of whom we speak,
O’er which she oft would muse alone,
Till the blush came across her cheek ;
A rosy cloud that glowed awhile,
Then melted in a sunny smile.

There was so much to charm the eye,
So much to move delightful thought,
Awake at night she loved to lie,
Darkness to her that image brought ;
She murmured of it in her dreams,
Like the low sound of gurgling streams

What secret thus the soul possessed

Of one so young and innocent P

Oh! nothing but a robin’s nest,

O’er which in ecstacy she bent ;—
That treasure she herself had found,
With five brown eggs, upon the ground.

When first it flashed upon her sight,

Bolt flew the dam above her head ;

She stooped, and almost shrieked with fright ;
But spying soon that little bed,

With feathers, moss, and horse-hairs twined,
Rapture and wonder filled her mind.
Breathless and beautiful she stood,

Her ringlets o’er her bosom fell,

With hands uplift, in attitude

As though a pulse might break the spell,