THE DAISY. 15 



take root, and clothe the arid soil with 

 beauty. There, too, the little hawkweed, 

 concerning which I shall speak elsewhere, 

 will sit beside her ; the one to tell when 

 the sun is about to rise, the other to remind 

 the weary labourer, that he may rest from 

 his work at noon. The daisy has also an- 

 other simple task assigned her, and this she 

 faithfully performs. She not only watches 

 for the sun, when the day begins to dawn, 

 but she tells of coming showers. She folds 

 up her snowy or pink-tinted leaves around 

 the golden disk which they encircle, when 

 journeyhig clouds obscm-e the rays of the 

 warm sun. And thus it often happens, that 

 acres of waving grass, which have looked as 

 if covered with a white sheet, are, by the 

 effect of a coming shower, suddenly restored 

 to their pristine verdure. Poets, in all ages, 

 have loved to speak concerning it. Milton, 

 in his musings by dimpled brook or foun- 



