FABLES OF FLOWERS. 
279 
“—Where all was jollity around, 
No fellowship the stranger found. 
Those lowliest children of the earth, 
That never leave their mother’s lap, 
Companions in their harmless mirth, 
Were smiling, blushing, dancing there, 
Feasting on dew, and light, and air, 
And fearing no mishap, 
Save from the hand of lady fair. 
Who, on her wonted walk, 
Pluck’d one and then another, 
A sister or a brother, 
From its elastic stalk ; 
Happy, no doubt, for one sharp pang, to die 
On her sweet bosom, withering in her eye. 
Thus all day long that star’s hard lot, 
While bliss and beauty ran to waste. 
Was but to witness on the spot 
Beauty and bliss it could not taste. 
At length the sun went down, and then 
Its faded glory came again, 
With brighter, bolder, purer light. 
It kindled through the deepening night, 
Till the green bow r er, so dim by day, 
Glow’d like a fairy-palace with its beams ; 
In vain, for sleep on all the borders lay, 
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