APPLE BLOSSOMS AND THE CHILD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 16

APPLE BLOSSOMS AND THE CHILD.

Beneath each rosy-white Ethereal bloom, lovely as pearl and seemingly As useless save to charm the sight, There lieth, not mere prophecy Of fruit to come, but the round fruit In miniature complete —a globe minute, With envelope and flesh and seed So planned that it shall need, To make fair food for longing lips, Only the balmy wind, the freshening rain, and the sunshine that slips

Its warming touch the sheltering leaves

between. —And, baby, in thy soul again Whoso hath looked the miracle hath seen. Here is not promise that a man shall

grow; Here is the man as he may be, Full-formed within The fragrant petal-cup of infancy,

Watch the bright eye Seeking, insatiable, to learn, to know; Watch the unresting steps begin Their voyages of far discovery. See how to bands outstretched the soft hands cling, And how the soft glance tells Responsive love to love that dwells Tn other eyes. See how the tender wounded heart can bring Swift dignity to heal its grieved surprise, And courage comes at call. Teh brave mouth quivers, but the foot

stands fast When perilous risks befall— When the great hound, first seen,

affrights, Qr in the dusk of garden nights The moth, the beetle, whirr too closely past!

How valiant the desire to aid In tasks enormous for so slender powers; How keen the sense in the beloved to see The changes made By the uncomprehended flight of change-

ful hours— To give the kiss betokening sympathy,, Or trustfulness, or merriment. How quick the lamentations and the cry-

stal tears For the young robin slain, The lily that the storm has rent; Yet with what gentle fortitude the small

soul bears Its own long fevered test of imaccustom

Ed pain, Stoic yet sweet the while, Weakened of all except the will to smile.

So unto us the babe is born; So in the blossom of his happy morn Lie wrapped the pattern and the plan Of grace and virtue in the man. Oh, sheltering leaves, oh, warming sun. Guard, foster, fashion, that there shall

in one Be fully ripened, undistorted, undefiled, The springtime excellences of the child. Blow, bracing wind! Fall, fructifying

rain! Round out the promise of the tiny

sphere, Nor let it grow to gnarled shape and

bitter grain, Kor. blighted, drop and disappear; For all the world is hungry, thirsty, des-

titute, Lacking due harvest of such fruit As waits, so small and yet so perfect, here. —By Mrs. Schuyler Van Renssalaer.