32 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



yearning for the beautiful ; it was an invitation for 

 the sower to sow. What tender memories, solaces, 

 and hopes, may be brought into darkened homes 

 by the brightness and the sweetness of the flowers ! 



*♦ The weary woman stays her task, 



That perfume to inhale ; 

 The pale-faced children pause to ask 



What breath is on the gale. 

 And none that breathes that sweetened air, 



But have a gentle thought ; 

 A gleam of something good and fair 



Across the spirit brought." 



Would that these inmates of alley and court, 

 would that these weary men and women, with 

 their pale-faced children, might breathe that 

 sweetened air, and see that gleam more oft ! All 

 honor to the owners of park and pleasaunce who 

 admit them therein, and to employers who give 

 them holidays to go ! Well does our great poet 

 plead :- — 



** Why should not these great Sirs 

 Give up their parks a dozen times a year. 

 To let the people breathe ?" 



Why should there not be great public gardens, 

 and great public flower-shows, in or near all our 

 towns? When the Council of the Manchester 



