THE VIOLET OF THE VALLEY. 
31 
ions, and their only delight was to call to, and ansAver 
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, Iioav great is the pleasure that fills its little heart, 
and how happy it is in the companionship of such 
SAveet ^cenery: and should the form of a stranger ap¬ 
pear, the golden chain of her melody Avas snapped 
asunder in an instant, and, like a bird, she Avould dart 
down to her little thatched nest in the valley beloAV. 
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 Avho knoAV 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 Avhy it Avas 
so happy in the solitude which surrounded it, Avhy it 
concealed its beauty amid the green leaves by which 
it Avas overhung, and scattered its SAveetness upon “the 
desert airand the Violet might have replied, that 
although the air Avhich blew around it Avas deserted, 
yet many a breeze would carry its SAveetness afar off, 
