392 A MAY MORNING. 



fulfilment of my charge,, by trying to play the man, and do 

 my best to console and to divert her. Ah ! it is easy in the 

 days of youth and childhood to impart as well as to receive of 

 comfort ; and, on the occasion I recall, many were my surround- 

 ing helps from hour and day and season for the consolation of 

 my weeping companion. It was one of those May mornings, 

 bright and blessed, when 



" Everything doth pleasure find 

 In all that comforts all their kind ;" 



when the early carol of the lark came mingled with a 

 thousand matin lays as lovely, if more lowly ; when the wings 

 of the ephemerae, then with their summer day of life before 

 them, were glittering in the morning beam ; when the dew- 

 drops shed for the sun's departure were drying up before his 

 kisses on return ; so the tears of Lucy soon dried up too, and 

 she could take delight as usual in the sight of her dear blue 

 butterflies the " azure blues " contrasted here and there by 

 the broader pinions of a " clouded yellow " and at last she 

 could even join me in the chase of a " Glanville fritillary," a 

 glorious insect, rare even on the Kentish coast, and of which I 

 therefore attempted the capture as a prize for my uncle's 

 cabinet. Not, however, with my usual ardour could I follow 

 the pursuit that had received a damper which not all the 

 influences of the morning could entirely dispel ; and then, on 

 such a morning as it was, to deprive a single thing of liberty 



