Chapter C

Though I live in the ocean so blue,
Yet I never am seen in the sea;
I can cast a sheet-anchor, 't is true,
And captains depend upon me.

B

I grow in the bean,
And to beauty I lean,
And when buttercups bloom I am there;
I bend the boy's bow,
And the bugle I blow,
Till I wake the Kamtchatcadale bear.

A

I lead out the ape, and I'm seen in the glass;
I hide in the grape, and I'm found in the grass.
I was there in the garden when Adam was made,
Not to help them to sin, though I stood in their shade.
You can not have an apple, an orange, a pear,
But in each and in all, I must have my full share.
You can not eat nor speak, nay, nor hear, without me;
That I'm chief among my fellows, you all must agree.

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_QUIRKS._

A little word of letters five
That means bound fast together;
Transpose but two, and you will find
A scattering yon and hither.

UNITE--UNTIE.

* * * * *

And now a word of letters four
Five perfect words will make,
If you transpose and rightly place
'Tis true and no mistake.

LEVI--LIVE--VILE--EVIL--VEIL.

* * * * *

Now five are found,
With spring and bound
A twist or turn to take,
And ere we know,
All in a row,
Five other words they make.
The times are bad,
The items sad,
The mites must meet their fate;
To smite the rock
Emits a shock
That hurls us from the gate.

TIMES--ITEMS--MITES--SMITE--EMITS.

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_SOMEBODY'S BOY._

List to the ring of the midnight song!
'Tis somebody's boy;
The winds give to every wild echo a tongue.
Yes, somebody's boy;

The witch of the revel has waved her wand
Over somebody's boy;
And the spirit of evil has clasped the hand
Of somebody's boy.

Comes now a yell on the midnight air
From somebody's boy;
Reckless, defiant, and devil-may-care,
Is somebody's boy.

Foul is the bed, madly dark the dank cell,
Where somebody's boy
Is writhing in torture, the veriest hell,
Yet, somebody's boy.

Waiting and watching, a mother's eyes weep
For somebody's boy;
The vigil, dear Father, O help her to keep!
For somebody's boy.

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Throw round him, and over, thy Spirit to save,--
This somebody's boy,
Ere fiends for his lost soul shall hollow the grave
Of somebody's boy.

Fill with thy Spirit, too, our hearts we pray,
That somebody's boy
We may watch for, and snatch from the death-trodden way,
Yes, somebody's boy.

{348}

_THE LADDIE-AND-LASSIE BIRDS._

Come sit with me in the green-wood bower,
While I sing you a song of love;--
'Tis the song of the birds
In the deep, wild woods,
'Tis the song of the sweet ring-dove.

The laddie-bird says, "I have come to woo;"
And the lassie-bird, "Ah! coo, coo, coo, coo." {349}

The laddie-bird says, "With a hope to win,"--
And the lassie-bird, "Coo, coo, that is no sin."

The laddie-bird says, "Together we'll dwell,"
And the lassie-bird says, "In the Linden dell."

The laddie-bird says, "And build our nest,"
And the lassie-bird says, "In the tree to the West."

The laddie-bird says, "And raise our brood,"
And the lassie-bird says, "In the sweet solitude."

The laddie-bird says, "Till they're fit to fly,"
And the lassie-bird, "Yes, to the blue, blue sky."

The laddie-bird says, "Let us hie away;"--
And the lassie-bird, "Yes, and begin to-day.

The laddie-bird says, "I will take this moss,"--
And the lassie-bird says, "And I, this floss."

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The laddie-bird says, "And we'll love so true;"
And the lassie-bird, "Ah, yes, coo, coo, coo."

'Tis the old-new song that the birds have sung,
Aye, the birds of every race,
Since the world was planned,
And came forth from the hand
Of the Maker, aglow with grace.

'Tis the song they will sing till time is o'er,--
'Tis the stream that from Paradise gushed; {351}
And the music that flows
When the love-light glows,
Will never, no, never be hushed.

{352}

Time

Eternity.

US

[Footnote: "The great watchful I is over US through TIME and ETERNITY.]

End of Project Gutenberg's Mother Truth's Melodies, by Mrs. E. P. Miller