18 
PYRUS JAPONICA. 
THE fairies’ fire. 
Tlie flowers, which cold in prison kept, 
Now laugh the frost to scorn. 
Richard Edwards, 1523. 
See, where the first pale sunbeams of the year 
Fall faintly, fearfully, upon the snow. 
That rests in wreathed flakes on every twig, 
Trained w'ith neat care aroimd the window-frame. 
So ic}'^ cold is every thing around, 
That even sunshine trembles to alight, 
Lest it be frozen too. 
Hal are they out ? 
My summer friends, the fairies ? Siu'ely not; 
Yet who but they have lit these tiny fires. 
That gleam and glow amid the wintry scene ? 
> 
Yes, here they are, aweary of the storms. 
And wrecking winds, and pinching frosts, that keep 
Within their darksome prison-house of earth 
The gay and spendthrift flowers; here they are. 
Lighting their ruddy beacons at the sun 
To melt away the snow. See, how it falls 
In drops of crystal from the glowing spray. 
Wreathed with deep crimson buds — the fairy fires. 
