WINTER EARTH STUDY. 511 



THE DROP AND THE CLOUD. 



44 In a mountain spring, a crystal drop 

 Came trembling up to the glassy top : 

 It came from the dark, cool depths of earth, 

 And the sunlight kissed it at its birth. 



Far up in the azure realms of sky 



The clouds of summer were sailing by ; 



And the little drop looked up and said, 



As it saw the glory overhead, 



4 Oh, would that to me the boon were given 



To move in the shining ranks of heaven ! ' 



And oft again, in its downward course, 



As it hurried from its mountain source, 



A bubble, borne by the brimming brook 



To many a wild and shadowed nook, 



Or loitered slow with the wayward stream, 



It thought of its childhood's sky-born dream. 



But on and away the waters flow 



Through woodland and meadow far below, 



Over sandy plain and snowy bank, 



And through swamps and jungles dense and rank ; 



Imprisoned long within rocky walls, 



Now plunging down over dizzy falls, 



That turn the wheels of the busy mill, 



Now white with foam, now dark and still, 



Till at length a river, deep and wide, 



It flowed where cities stood by its side ; 



And at last the river reached the sea, 



And the dream and the dreamer ceased to be. 



The drop was lost in the heaving deep 



Where all the rivers of earth must sleep. 



But the sun that kissed the new-born drop, 

 And whose floods of sunbeams never stop, 

 Had not forgotten his little child, 

 Born of a mist in the mountain wild ; 

 And he loosed his threads of golden light, 

 And up from a wave of snowy white 



