POETRY

FOR

CHILDREN.

THE BEGGAR MAN.

AROUND the fire, one wintry night,
The farmer's rosy children sat;

The faggot lent its blazing light;
And jokes went round and careless chat.

When, hark! a gentle hand they hear
Low tapping at the bolted door;

And thus, to gain their willing ear,
A feeble voice was heard t'implore:

B

2

The Beggar Man.

"Cold blows the blast across the moor;
The sleet drives hissing in the wind;
Yon toilsome mountain lies before;
A dreary treeless waste behind.

"My eyes are weak and dim with age;
No road, no path, can I descry;
And these poor rags ill stand the rage
Of such a keen inclement sky.

"So faint I am-these tottering feet No more my palsied frame can bear; My freezing heart forgets to beat,

And drifting snows my tomb prepare.

"Open your hospitable door,

And shield me from the biting blast: Cold, cold it blows across the moor, The weary moor that I have pass'd !”

With hasty step the farmer ran,

And close beside the fire they place The poor half-frozen beggar man,

With shaking limbs and blue-pale face.

The Cuckoo.

e children flocking came,

hafed his frozen hands in theirs;
ily the good old dame

afortable mess prepares.

ndness cheer'd his drooping soul;
lowly down his wrinkled cheek
round tears were seen to roll,
old the thanks he could not speak.

ldren, too, began to sigh,

Д all their merry chat was o'er ; And yet they felt, they knew not why, More glad than they had done before

3

QRIGINAL.

THE CUCKOO.

HAIL, beauteous stranger of the wood,
Attendant on the spring!

Now heaven repairs thy vernal seat,
And woods thy welcome sing.