THE SIX OF SPADES. 91 



love the flowers ; and my hope is, that through life 

 they may connect the one with the other. 



" There is a wondrous revelation in these earth- 

 stars, blue and golden, as Longfellow has told us in 

 his grand melodious rhymes, and I trust we are read- 

 ing it together. I love to imagine that when these 

 boys are men, the labourer going to his work and 

 from it may be reminded, as he looks upon these old 

 familiar friends, of the lessons we are learning now ; 

 that "the' hewers of wood" may stop to recognize, 

 with pleasant memories of the past and brighter hopes 

 of the future, the anemone, the primrose, the violet, the 

 lily, or the hyacinth; that pale mechanics, in their Sun- 

 day walk, may repeat to their little ones the precepts 

 which are taught by the flowers ; and that soldiers 

 and sailors far away may dream of the meadow and 

 the grove, and awake with a deeper affection for their 

 beautiful English birthland, a braver heart to main- 

 tain its freedom. Yes, I love to imagine that the 

 recollection of these happy wanderings among the 

 summer flowers may help to revive in weary men the 

 freshness of boyhood's happiness ; that some of these 

 lads may hereafter be of that company of whom our 

 greatest sacred poet has said : 



' ' There are, in this loud stunning tide 



Of human care and crime, 

 With whom the melodies abide 



Of th' everlasting chime ; 

 Who carry music in their heart, 

 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 

 Plying their daily task with busier feet, 

 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat ; " 



