15 



POEM. 



FARM- WONDERS. 



BY PROF. n. \V. I'ARKEIJ. 



My theme is wonder ; and where does wonder dwell ? 

 Ou fiction's page, or in some enchanter's spell ? 

 In caverns of spar, in hills of silver and gold ? 

 In tropical wilds, or the wastes of arctic cold ? 

 Lo ! here and yonder and everywhere it abides, 

 Lurks by the highway and all around us hides — 

 Nay, stands in full view, regarded not by the blind, 

 Who lack the thousand eyes of a studious mind. 



These towering trees, and the blessed fruits or grains — 

 Burn them, and only a mound of ashes remains ; 

 ' The tons of water took wing and vanished in gas. 

 Truly a sea is your meadow of waving grass. 

 And the forest monarch that lies in slow decay. 

 Blackening to mould — it is verily burning away 

 With a heat that never in roaring flame appears. 

 Only because it is spread through a hundred years. 



This field of tubers — the food of the Emerald Isle — 

 What wonder is here that can a moment beguile ? 

 Plant of a niarvelous family ! — cousin, indeed, 

 To a herb ot bad reputation, the nicotine weed, 

 And to three of the deadly drugs the doctors know, 

 And the fiery peppers our grandmothers used to grow, 

 ■"Tis the egg-plant's brother, its sisters the bitter-sweet 

 And a maidenly flower or two that we love to greet. 



