The Sale of the Water-Lily

The Humming-Bird’s Anger

The Butterfly’s Dream

The Boy and the Cricket

Fanny Spy

Sudden Elevation

The Stricken Bird

The Young Sportsman

The Pebble and the Acorn

The Grasshopper and the Ant

The Rose-Bud of Autumn

Frost, the Winter-Sprite

Vivy Vain

The Lost Kite

The Summer-Morning Ramble

The Shoemaker

The Snow-Storm

The Whirlwind

The Disobedient Skater Boys

Winter and Spring

Tom Tar

The Envious Lobster

The Crocus’ Soliloquy

The Bee, Clover, and Thistle

Poor Old Paul

The Sea-Eagle’s Fall

The Two Thieves

Jemmy String

The Caterpillar

The Mocking Bird

The Silk-Worm’s Will

Dame Biddy

Kit with the Rose

The Captive Butterfly

The Dissatisfied Angler Boy

The Stove and Grate-Setter

Song of the Bees

Summer is Come

The Morning-Glory

The Old Cotter and his Cow

The Speckled One

The Blind Musician

The Lame Horse

The Mushroom’s Soliloquy

The Lost Nestlings

The Bat’s Flight by Daylight

Idle Jack

David and Goliath

Escape of the Doves

Edward and Charles

The Mountain Minstrel

The Veteran and the Child

Captain Kidd

The Dying Storm

The Little Traveller

=The Sale of the Water-Lily=

And these would sometimes come, and cheer
  The widow with a song,
To let her feel a neighbor near,
  And wing an hour along.

A pond, supplied by hidden springs,
  With lilies bordered round,
Was found among the richest things,
  That blessed the widow’s ground.

She had, besides, a gentle brook,
  That wound the meadow through,
Which from the pond its being took,
  And had its treasures too.

Her eldest orphan was a son;
  For, children she had three;
She called him, though a little one,
  Her hope for days to be.

And well he might be reckoned so;
  If, from the tender shoot,
We know the way the branch will grow;
  Or, by the flower, the fruit.

His tongue was true, his mind was bright;
  His temper smooth and mild: 
He was—­the parent’s chief delight—­
  A good and pleasant child.

He’d gather chips and sticks of wood
  The winter fire to make;
And help his mother dress their food,
  Or tend the baking cake.

In summer time he’d kindly lead
  His little sisters out,
To pick wild berries on the mead,
  And fish the brook for trout.