FOR CHILDREN. 117

MORAL.

It seems that life is all a void,
On selfish thoughts alone employed :
That length of days is not a good,
Unless their use be understood ;
While if good deeds one year engage,
That may be longer than an age:
But if a year in trifles go,
Perhaps you'd spend a thousand so.
Time cannot stay to make us wise-—
We must improve it as it flies.

Jane Taylor.

 

INVITATION TO BIRDS.

Yz gentle warblers! hither fly,
And shun the noontide heat ;
My shrubs a cooling shade supply,

My groves a safe retreat.

Here freely hop from spray to spray,
And weave the mossy nest;

Here rove and sing the live-long day,
At night here sweetly rest.

Amid this cool transparent rill,
That trickles down the glade,

Here bathe your plumes, here drink your fill,
And revel in the shade.

No school-boy rude, to mischief prone,
Here shows his ruddy face;

Or twangs his bow, or hurls a stone
In this sequestered place.