FOR CHILDREN. VW5

There you sit, still the same, with your colourless
cheek ;
But you have no spirit—would I were as meek !”

The Primrose, good-humoured, replied, “If you
knew

More about him—(remember I’m older than you,

And, better instructed, can tell you his tale)—

You would envy him least of all flowers in this vale;

With all his fine airs and his dazzling show,

No flower more baneful and odious can blow ;

And the reason the others before him give way,

Is because thev all hate him, and shrink from his
sway.

To stay near him long would be fading or death,

For he scatters a pest with his venomous breath;

While the flowers that you fancy are crowding you
there,

Spring round you delighted your converse to share;

His flame-coloured robe is imposing, ’tis true ;

Yet who likes it so well as your mantle of blue?

For we know that of innocence one is the vest,

The other the cloak of a treacherous breast.

I see your surprise—but I know him full well,

And have numbered his victims as fading they fell;

He blighted twin violets that under him lay,

And poisoned a sister of mine the same day.”

The Primrose was silent; the Harebell, ’tis said,
Inclined for a moment her beautiful head,

But quickly recovered her spirits, and then
Declared that she ne’er would feel envy again.