“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.”

PLAY-ING AT OM-NI-BUS.

Says Hu-bert, “Look, how fast it pours! 
I’m sure we can’t go out of doors
  While it is rain-ing thus;
So let us in the nur-se-ry stay,
To have a mer-ry game, and play
  At driv-ing om-ni-bus.

“Flo-ra and Ted-dy, you must be
The horses, and be driv-en by me. 
  Mind you go stea-dy—­do! 
A place for Char-lie we shall find;
To guard the ’bus he’ll ride be-hind,
  And take the mon-ey too.

“Dick, with pa-pa’s old hat to wear,
Looks just the thing to be a fare
  Who wants to ride with us. 
Jump up, sir!  Six-pence all the way! 
Gee, gee, you horses!  Gee, I say!”—­
  Off goes the om-ni-bus!

[Illustration:  With wings scarce mov-ing, through the sky, The lazy Kite is seen to fly.]

[Illustration:  The Kan-ga-roo a poc-ket wears, In which her lit-tle ones she bears.]

[Illustration:  The Liz-ard in the sun’s warm rays De-lights to bask on summer days.]

[Illustration:  The Lam-prey, in the Se-vern caught, Was once the first of dain-ties thought.]

[Illustration:  Playing at omnibus.]

[Illustration:  On the Water.]

[Illustration]

GA-THER-ING POP-PIES.