246 OUR WILD FLOWERS AND OUR PASTORAL LIFE. 



somewhat with those flowers which she had ever dehghted in. Then 

 an autumn more ungenial than usual aggravated his ailments, and 

 induced a sudden weakness which told him that the fall of the leaves 

 around was but the prelude of his own fate : — 



" My life is like the autumn leaf 



That trembles in the morn's pale ray. 

 Its hold is frail, its date is brief. 

 Restless, and soon to pass away *." 



For as he sat under the Beech, whereon he had, when a boy, 

 engraved initials that were scarcely legible now, the bright sun did 

 not warm him, nor cheer him, as it did the landscape he looked 

 upon, and loved so well. There the stalwart husbandman stalked 

 over the fallow field, sowing the seed of a future crop ; and the grain 

 that fell to his measured tread was Wheat f. The soldier's face 

 brightened : — Hope filled his bosom : — he returned to his cot grate- 

 ful and resigned, and he retired to his rest. On the morrow his 

 sister-in-law discovered that the spirit of her brother had gone to the 

 bosom of his Father and his God. 



" Such is of well-spent life the time. 

 When busy days are past ; 

 Man, verging gradual from his prime. 

 Meets sacred peace at last ; 



His flowery spring of pleasures o'er. 

 And summer's full-bloom pride no more, 

 He gains pacific autumn, mild and bland. 

 And dauntless braves the stroke of winter's palsied hand. 



" For yet a while, a little while. 

 Involved in wintry gloom, 

 And lo ! another spring shall smile, 

 A spring eternal bloom ; 



Then shall he shine, a glorious guest. 

 In the bright mansions of the blest. 

 Where due rewards on virtue are bestow'd. 

 And reap'd the golden fruits of what his autumn sow'd." 



* " I am a bending, aged tree. 



That long has stood the wind and rain ; 

 But now has come a cruel blast. 



And my last hold of earth is gane : 

 Nae leaf o' mine shall greet the spring, 



Nae simmer sun exalt my bloom ; 

 But I maun lie before the storm, 



And ithers plant them in my room." — Burns. 



t " But some man will say, How are the dead raised up ? and with what 

 body do they come ? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, 

 except it die : and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that 

 ■ihM be, but bare grain, it may chance of Wheat," &c. — St. Paul. 



