86 THE PLANT WOELD 



sure should be brought to bear upon the publishers * for a new edition ; 

 it is a small thin picture-book, with chromo-lithographs on every page, 

 the text being squeezed into the sky or other small areas of vacant space. 

 I quote as briefly as possible the moral, which is what the old grand- 

 mother says to the children when they are going a-maying : 



" Little kings and queens of the May, 

 Listen to me ; 

 If you want to be 

 Every one of j-ou very good, 

 In that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful wood. 

 Whatever you pluck. 

 Leave some for good luck ; 

 Picked from the stalk or pulled up by the root, 

 From overhead or from underfoot, 

 Water-wonders of pond or brook. 

 Wherever yoi: look, 

 Or whatever you find, 

 Leave something behind : 

 Some for the Naiads, 

 Some for the Dryads, 

 And a bit for the Nixies, 

 And the Pixies. 



" Harken, my child : 

 There is nothing more destructive and wild, 



No wild bull with his horns. 



No wild briar with clutching thorns. 



No pig that routs in your garden bed. 



No robber with ruthless tread. 



More reckless and rude, 



And wasteful of all things lovely and good 

 Than a child with the face of a boy and the ways of a bear, 



Who doesn't care. 

 Or some ignorant little minx, 

 Who never thinks : 



Now I never knew so stupid an elf 



That he could not think and care for himself. 

 Oh ! little sisters and little brothers, 

 Think of others and care for others. 

 And of all that your little fingers find, 

 Leave something behind. ' ' 



In another picture book of the same series,t a similar moral ends 

 the story of " The Old Willow Man,"— 



* London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ; New York : E. & J. B. 

 Young & Co. 



t " Boy and Squirrel." 



