THE BOY AND THE DEW DROPS.


A little boy who had been out early in the morning playing on the lawn

before his father's house, while the dew drops lay on the grass, was

soon after seen returning to the spot, and finding them all gone, he

sat down to weep. His father asked him why he wept.



"Because," said he, "the beautiful dew drops are gone." His father

tried to soothe him, but he continued weeping. Just then a cloud

passed over, an
on the cloud the beautiful rainbow had cast its arch.



"There, see, my son," said the father, "there are all your dew drops;

the sun has taken them up only to set them forth in greater brightness

in the sky."



"O father, dear father, why pass they away,

The dew drops that sparkled at dawning of day,

That glittered like stars in the light of the moon;

Oh, why are the dew drops dissolving so soon?

Does the sun in his wrath chase their brightness away,

As if nothing that's lovely might live for a day?

The moonlight is faded, the flowers still remain,

But the dew drops have shrunk to their petals again."



"My child," said the father, "look up to the skies;

Behold that bright rainbow, those beautiful dyes,

There, there are the dew drops in glory reset,

'Mid the jewels of heaven they are glittering yet.

Oh, are we not taught by each beautiful ray

To mourn not earth's fair things, though passing away?

For though youth of its beauty and brightness be riven,

All that withers on earth blooms more sweetly in heaven.

Look up," sad the father, "look up to the skies----

Hope sits on the wings of those beautiful dyes."



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