CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. 97 
flowers of the field, regardless of the storm, grow 
into beauty, and multiply for ever.” Yes ! 
“ The wilding rose, sweet as thyself, 
And new-cropp’d daisies are thy treasure j 
I’d gladly part with worldly pelf, 
To taste again thy youthful pleasure.” 
Joanna Baillie. 
Says the first of Scotland’s poetesses, addressing 
a child ; and the Northamptonshire peasant, in 
his own peculiar sweet, though mournful strains, 
thus sings of early delights :— 
“ Those joys which childhood calls it own, 
Would they were kin to men ! 
Those treasures to the world unknown, 
When known, are withered then ! 
But hovering round her growing years. 
To gild Care’s sable shroud. 
Their spirit through the gloom appears. 
As sun behind a cloud.” —John Clare. 
This is hut one of the many instances in which 
he recurs to the flowery pleasures of childhood, 
and he is but one of the many thousands who 
have recorded in golden numbers their joyful 
recollections of that delightful period of exist¬ 
ence, when— 
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