"The de-sert shall re-joice, and blos-som as the rose."--ISAIAH XXXV. I.
Be-hold the flow-ers of June! how fair
And bright their buds ap-pear,
As, open-ing to the sum-mer air,
Our eyes and hearts they cheer!
Who would have thought there could a-bound
Such beau-ty and de-light
Be-neath the cold and win-try ground
That hid those flow-ers from sight?
That pow-er which made and governs all--
The might-y pow-er of God--
A-lone could life and beau-ty call
Out of the life-less sod.
And He, who from the Win-ter's gloom
Can Sum-mer thus dis-close,
Shall one day make the de-sert bloom,
And blos-som as the rose.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "WHERE'S DICK-EY?"]
"WHERE'S DICK-EY?"
"Look there!" lit-tle Lot-ty cried,
"Dick-ey's cage is o-pen wide,
And, I fear, he's not in-side. Cou-sin John,
Do please stand up-on this chair,
Just to see if he is there.
Pret-ty Dick, I won-der where
You are gone!
"Naugh-ty puss, your jaws, you lick!
Have you eat-en lit-tle Dick?
That would be a cru-el trick! No, I see
Pret-ty Dick has flown a-way,
And is sing-ing blithe and gay,
Sit-ting yon-der on a spray
Of the tree.
"Well, I too should think it wrong,
If a gi-ant, tall and strong,
Just to hear my lit-tle song ev-ery day,
Shut _me_ in a cage; and yet
Thus I did my lit-tle pet---
So he must be glad to get
Safe a-way."