THE VIOLET OF THE VALLEY. 
31 
ions, and their only delight was to call to, and answer- 
each other. She sang from the very overjoyousness 
of her heart, like a bird, perched amid a cluster of 
milk-white blossoms, that takes a delight in telling 
the trees, and flowers, and sunshine that hangs around 
it, how great is the pleasure that fills its little heart, 
and how happy it is in the companionship of such 
sweet scenery : and should the form of a stranger ap¬ 
pear, the golden chain of her melody was snapped 
asunder in an instant, and, like a bird, she -would dart 
down to her little thatched nest in the valley below. 
Her modesty, and the sweetness of her voice, had ob¬ 
tained for her amidst the neighboring villagers the 
name of, The Violet of the Valley. 
Those who know not the bliss which springs from 
contentment, might marvel how one so beautiful could 
rest satisfied by burying herself in such seclusion. 
They might as "well have asked the Violet why it was 
so happy in the solitude which surrounded it, why it 
concealed its beauty amid the green leaves by which 
it was overhung, and scattered its sweetness upon “the 
desert airand the Violet might have replied, that 
although the air which blew around it was deserted, 
yet many a breeze would carry its sweetness afar off, 
