They say that God lives very high;
  But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God; and why?

And if you dig down in the mines,
  You never see Him in the gold,
Though from Him all that’s glory shines.

God is so good, He wears a fold
  Of heaven and earth across His face,
Like secrets kept, for love, untold.

But still I feel that His embrace
  Slides down by thrills, through all things made,
Through sight and sound of every place;

As if my tender mother laid
  On my shut lids her kisses’ pressure,
Half waking me at night, and said,
  “Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?”
                           Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

“BOB WHITE”

I see you, on the zigzag rails,
  You cheery little fellow! 
While purple leaves are whirling down,
  And scarlet, brown, and yellow. 
I hear you when the air is full
  Of snow-down of the thistle;
All in your speckled jacket trim,
  “Bob White!  Bob White!” you whistle.

Tall amber sheaves, in rustling rows,
  Are nodding there to greet you;
I know that you are out for play—­
  How I should like to meet you! 
Though blithe of voice, so shy you are,
  In this delightful weather;
What splendid playmates you and I,
  “Bob White,” would make together!

There, you are gone! but far away
  I hear your whistle falling. 
Ah! may be it is hide-and-seek,
  And that’s why you are calling. 
Along those hazy uplands wide
  We’d be such merry rangers;
What! silent now, and hidden too? 
  “Bob White,” don’t let’s be strangers.

Perhaps you teach your brood the game,
  In yonder rainbowed thicket,
While winds are playing with the leaves,
  And softly creaks the cricket. 
“Bob White!  Bob White!”—­again I hear
  That blithely whistled chorus;
Why should we not companions be? 
  One Father watches o’er us!
                            George Cooper.

THE DAISIES

Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune
  I saw the white daisies go down to the sea,
A host in the sunshine, an army in June,
  The people God sends us to set our hearts free.

The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell,
  The orioles whistled them out of the wood;
And all of their saying was, “Earth, it is well!”
  And all of their dancing was, “Life, thou art good!”
                                          Bliss Carman.

WAITING TO GROW

Little white snowdrop just waking up,
Violet, daisy, and sweet buttercup,
Think of the flowers that are under the snow,
    Waiting to grow!

And think what a number of queer little seeds,
Of flowers and mosses, of ferns and of weeds,
Are under the leaves and under the snow,
    Waiting to grow!