FOR CHILDREN. 179

Like Eden the land before they find,
But they leave it a desolate waste behind.!

The peasant grows pale when he sees them come,
And standeth before them weak and dumb ;

For they come like a raging fire in power,

And eat up @ harvest in half an hour ;

And the trees are bare, and the land is brown,

As if trampled and trod by an army down.

There is terror in every monarch’s eye,

When he hears that this terrible foe is nigh ;
For he knows that the might of an armed host
Cannot drive the spoiler from out his coast,
That terror and famine his land await,

And from north to south ‘twill be desolate.

Thus, the ravening locust is strong and grim ;
And what were an armed man to him ?

Fire turneth him not, nor sea prevents,

He is stronger by far than the elements !

1 The prophet Joel, (ii. 3, 7, 8,) referring to the invasion
of locusts, thus writes :—
A fire devoureth before them.
And behind them a flame burneth :
The land is as the Garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness ;
Yea, and nothing shall escape them.
. . * * *
And they shall march every one on his way,
And they shall not break their ranks ;
Neither shall one thrust another ;
They shall walk every one in his path;
And when they fall on the sword, they shall not be
wounded.