9 CÄR PET KNIGHT. A knight made | 12 FÂL'CHIỌN (fàl'shun). Sword. 10 RUTH. Mercy; pity. 11 CAIRN (kárn). A heap of stones. 14 TÄRʼTAN. A kind of cloth check ered with threads of various colors. 15 TÖIL. A net or snare to catch wild animals. LV. LESSONS OF SPRING. GREENWOOD. [Francis William Pitt Greenwood was born in Boston, February 5, 1797, and died August 2, 1843. He was the pastor of a church in Boston. His writings are marked by a beautiful clearness and simplicity of style, and a fervent, devotional spirit.] 1. LET us contemplate, for a few moments, the animated scene which is presented by our Spring. The earth, loosened by the victorious sun, springs from the hard dominion of winter's frost, and, no longer offering a bound-up, repulsive surface to the husbandman, invites his cultivating labors. The streams are released from their icy fetters, and spring forward on their unobstructed way, full of sparkling waters, which sing and rejoice as they run on. 2. "The trees of the Lord are full of sap," which now springs up into their before shrunken and empty vessels, causing the buds to swell, and the yet unclothed branches and twigs to lose their rigid appearance, and assume a fresher hue and a more rounded form. Beneath them, and in every warm and sheltered spot, the wild plants are springing. 3. Some of these are just pushing up their tender, crisp, and yet vigorous sprouts, thrusting aside the dead leaves with their folded heads, and finding their sure way out into the light; while others have sent forth their delicate foliage, and hung out their buds on slender stems; and others still have unfolded their flowers, which look up into the air unsuspectingly and gayly, like innocence upon an untried world. The grass is springing for the scythe, and the grain for the sickle; for they grow by commandment, for the service of man, and death is every where the fate and issue of life. 4. But it is not only senseless things which are thus visibly springing at this their appointed season. The various tribes of animated nature show that it is spring also with them. The birds rise up on elastic wing, and make a joyous music for the growing plants to spring to. Animals, that have lain torpid through the benumbing winter, spring up from their secret beds and dormitories', and resume their habits of activity once more. 5. Innumerable insects spring up from the cells which they had formed beyond the reach of frost, and in new attire commence their winged existence. The hum of happy life is heard from myriads of little creatures, who, born in the morning, will die ere night. In that short term, however, they will have accomplished the purposes of their living; and, if brought to this test, there are many human lives which are shorter and vainer than theirs; and what is any life, when past, but a day! 6. Let us go abroad amidst this general springing of the earth and nature, and we shall see and feel that God's blessing is there. The joy of recovery, the gladness of escape, the buoyancy of youth, the exultation of commencing or renewed existence, these are the happiness and blessing which are given from above, and the praise and the hymn which ascend from beneath. 7. Another and a milder order of things seems to be beginning. The gales, though not the warm breathings of summer, flow to us as if they came from some distant summer clime, and were cooled and moderated on their way; while, at no distant intervals, the skies, in their genial ministry, baptize the offspring of earth with their softest and holiest showers. "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; thou makest it soft with showers; thou blessest the springing thereof." 8. Surely we cannot stand still in such a scene, and, when every thing else is springing, let it be winter in our souls. Let us rather open our hearts to the renovating influences of heaven, and sympathize with universal nature. If our love to God has been chilled by any of the wintry aspects of the world, it is time that it should be resuscitated, and that it should spring up in ardent adoration to the Source of light and life. 9. It is time that our gratitude should be waked from its sleep, and our devotion aroused, and that all our pious affections, shaking off their torpor, should come out into the beams of God's presence, and receive new powers from their invigorating warmth. It is time, too, that our social charities, if any "killing frost" has visited them, should be cured of their numbness and apathy, and go forth among the children and brethren of the great family, and feel, as they rise and move, that the blessing of the Almighty Father is upon their springing. 1 DÖR'MI-TO-RIES. Sleeping places. 4 SYM'PA-THĪZE. Feel as another feels; 2 MYR'I-AD. An immense number. have a common feeling. 3 RE-SUS/CI-TAT-ED. Restored to life 5 AP'A-THY. Want of feeling; insenfrom seeming death; revived. sibility; indifference. 1. We love birds. When the first soft days of spring come in all their gentle sweetness, and woo us with their warmth, and soothe us with their smile, then come the birds. With us they, too, rejoice that winter's reign (and snow) is ended. No one of the seasons that come to "rule the varied year," abdicates' his throne more to his subjects' joy than Winter. While he rules, we lose all respect for the mercury' in our thermometer 3. When we remember how high it stood in our estimation only a few short months ago, we did not think that it could get so low. We resolve to have nothing more to do with it; for "there is a point beyond which forbearance ceases to be a virtue," and we conceive that point to be thirty-two degrees above zero at the very least. 4 2. How pleasant are the early hours of a day in spring! The air is laden with the perfect perfume of a thousand flowers, and leaves, and buds. And then, besides the pleasure of seeing jocund' day go through that difficult gymnastic feat, described by Shakspeare, of standing "tiptoe on the misty mountain tops," we have a glorious morning concert, to which we have a season ticket; for "Innumerous songsters in the freshening shade Of new-sprung leaves their modulations mix 3. Such music! It seems the pure outpouring of the greatest gratitude to Him who made the morn so beautiful, so full of joy and light. It is the expression of most perfect praise, in ecstasy of song. Yes, indeed, we love birds! 4. There is a deal of pleasure as well as profit to be derived from studying the habits and the character of birds. Nor is the study burdensome. Of all the lower orders of creation, as they frequent most freely the haunts and homes of men, so they approach us nearest in intelligence. They have their labors and amusements, their conjugal relations, and, like us, they build with taste and skill their houses; they have society, moreover, and the opera. In very many things they are our equals, in some, our superiors; and what in other animals at best is only instinct, in birds is almost reason. 8 5. Among the first returning tourists' from the south, in spring, are these pleasant little people, the bluebird, martin, and wren. They have particular confidence in man. Nor is their confidence misplaced; for every body hails with joy these harbingers of spring. Their company is peculiarly agreeable, and they seem to know it; for every year they come again to occupy the boxes, or perchance old hats, which were put up for them, and in them they build their nests, and there they live rent free; yet not exactly so, for they pay us with their notes. 6. Sometimes these little people have a deal of difficulty among themselves about these habitations. The martins come, and find the bluebirds have taken all these places, and there is a disturbance directly. After some considerable scolding, and twitting on facts, the martins take possession of a certain portion of the pigeon-cote, and keep it too,for not a pigeon dare go near them, — while the smaller wrens content themselves with some spare corner of the portico, where they forthwith proceed to build their houses, with all the architectural skill derived from their great namesake, the builder of St. Paul's. There is a spice of waggish mischief about the wren somewhat amusing. * 7. Often when the bluebird has left his house, and gone to market or down town, the wren peeps in, and, finding no one there, proceeds to amuse himself by pulling out the straws and feathers in the nest; but should perchance the bluebird come in sight, the wren remembers that there is something very interesting going on around the corner of the barn, that demands his immediate attention. 8. These birds. the bluebird, martin, and the wren, together with the swallows (barn and chimney), and "honest robin," who, as quaint old Walton has it, "loves *The architect of St. Paul's, in London, was Sir Christopher Wren. |