RING-TING! I wish I were a Primrose,

A bright yellow Primrose, blowing in the spring!
The stooping boughs above me,
The wandering bee to love me,
The fern and moss to creep across,

And the Elm-tree for our king!

Nay

stay! I wish I were an Elm-tree,

A great, lofty Elm-tree, with green leaves gay!
The winds would set them dancing,

The sun and moonshine glance in,
The birds would house among the boughs,
And sweetly sing.

0-no! I wish I were a Robin,

A Robin or a little Wren, everywhere to go;

Through forest, field, or garden,
And ask no leave or pardon,
Till winter comes with icy thumbs
To ruffle up our wing!

Well-tell! Where should I fly to,

Where go to sleep in the dark wood or dell?

Before a day was over,

Home comes the rover,

For mother's kiss sweeter this

STOP, STOP, PRETTY WATER.

"STOP, stop, pretty water!"
Said Mary, one day,

To a frolicsome brook,
That was running away.

"You run on so fast!

I wish you would stay;
My boat and my flowers
You will carry away.

"But I will run after :

Mother says that I may;

For I would know where
You are running away."

So Mary ran on ;

But I have heard say,
That she never could find

Where the brook ran away.

Mrs. Follen.

CHILD'S WISH IN JUNE.

MOTHER, mother, the winds are at play,
Prithee let me be idle to-day,

Look, dear mother, the flowers all lie
Languidly under the bright blue sky.

See how slowly the streamlet glides;
Look how the violet roguishly hides;
Even the butterfly rests on the rose,
And scarcely sips the sweets as he goes.

Poor Tray is asleep in the noonday sun,
And the flies go about him one by one;
And Pussy sits near with a sleepy grace,
Without ever thinking of washing her face.

There flies a bird to a neighboring tree,
But very lazily flutters he ;

And he sits and twitters a gentle note,
That scarcely ruffles his little throat.

You bid me be busy; but, mother, hear,
The hum-drum Grasshopper droning near;
And the soft west wind is so light in its play,
It scarcely moves a leaf on the spray.

d;

I wish, oh! I wish, I was yonder cloud,
That sails about with its misty shroud
Books and work I no more should see,
But I'd come and float, dear mother, o'er thee.
- Mrs. Gilman.

UNDER MY WINDOW.

UNDER my window, under my window.
All in the midsummer weather,
Three little girls, with fluttering curls,

Flit to and fro together :

There's Bell with her bonnet of satin sheen,
And Maud with her mantle of silver-green,
And Kate with her scarlet feather.

Under my window, under my window,
Leaning stealthily over,

Merry and clear, the voice I hear

Of each glad-hearted rover.

Ah! sly little Kate, she steals my roses,
And Maud and Bell twine wreaths and posies,
As merry as bees in clover.

Under my window, under my window,

In the blue midsummer weather,
Stealing slow, on a hushed tip-toe,

I catch them all together:
Bell with her bonnet of satin sheen,
And Maud with her mantle of silver-green,
And Kate with the scarlet feather.

Under my window, under my window,
And off through the orchard closes ;
While Maud she flouts, and Bell she pouts,
They scamper, and drop their posies;
But dear little Kate takes naught amiss,
And leaps in my arms with a loving kiss,
And I give her all my roses.

T. Westwood.

THE SCHOOL.

"LITTLE girl, where do you go to school,
And when do you go, little girl?
Over the grass, from dawn till dark,
Your feet are in a whirl:

You and the cat jump here and there,
You and the robins sing;

But what do you know in the spelling-book?
Have you ever learned any thing?"

Thus the little girl answered,

Only stopping to cling To my finger a minute,

As a bird on the wing Catches a twig of sumach,

And stops to twitter and swing,

"When the daisies' eyes are a-twinkle
With happy tears of dew;
When swallows waken in the eaves,
And the lamb bleats to the ewe;
When the lawns are golden-barred,
And the kiss of the wind is cool;
When morning's breath blows out the stars,
Then do I go to school!

And the bells that ring for me there

Are all the voices of morning

Afloat in the dewy air.

Kind Nature is the Madame ;

And the book whereout I spell

Is dog's-eared by the brooks and glens
Where I know the lesson well."