CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. 91 



But to return to the season of youth to the 

 spring-time of Jife when flowers-are scattered 

 about our path, thickly as stars in the firma- 

 ment of night, and we sport like lambs in the 

 verdant meads, heedless of what the future may 

 bring : Fearless, beautiful boyhood ! beloved 

 of nature, who, like a kind school-mistress, sits 

 upon the hills, and claps her hands in joy at 

 his pastime, giving him the earth and all its 

 landscapes at once, for his school and play- 

 ground and then the rocks and woods re-echo 

 his mirth ; and then in thoughtful silence wan- 

 dering away, the quiet nooks enclose him with 

 their greenness, "making companions of every- 

 thing animate and inanimate endowed with 

 beauty ; searching with a worshipping curiosity 

 into every leaf and flower about his path, while 

 the boughs bend to him and touch him with 

 their sunshine ; picking up lessons of present 

 delight and future wisdom, by rivers' sides, by 

 brooks, in the glens, and in the fields ; inhaling, 

 in every breath he draws, intelligence and 

 health." Thus, says CHRISTOPHER NORTH, that 

 " grey-haired man of glee" whose writings 



