THE PURSUIT OF HEALTH.

Waikato Times, Volume XL, Issue 3260, 20 May 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PURSUIT OF HEALTH.

A DREAM. Ono April morn, reclined in boil, Just at the hour when dreams are true, A fairy form approached my head, Smiiuiß beneath her mantle blue. "Fio! fio!" .-.ho cried. " Why sleep so long, When sho, the nymph you dearly love, Now mvoi the vernal dowers among And waits (or you in yondor two? " Hark ! you may bear hor cherub voico; The voice nt health is sweet and clew. Yes, you may hear tho birds rejoice In symphony, her arbour noar," I rose and hastened to llio prove With ea»er steps nnd anxious mind ; I rose tho elfin's truth to prove, And hoped tho promised nymph to find, My fairy took mo by tho hand, And cheerfully we stepped along; She stopped, but on tho new-ploughed land, To hear the russet woodlarli's song. Wc roaclied the grovo; I looked armindMy fairy was no longer near; But of her voice I know the sound As thus she whispered in my ear: " The nymph, fair Health, yon came to find Within tiieso precincts loves to dwell— Her breath now fills the balmy wind; This path will lead you to her cell. I bended to the primrose low And asked if Health miahtthere resido? " She left me," said tho flower." but now For yonder violet's purple pride,' I questioned next tho violet queen Whero buxom Health was to be found ? She told mo that she Into was seen With cowslips toying on tho ground, Then tlirico I kissed the cowslips pale And in their dewdrops bathed my face; I told them all my tender tale, And begged their aid coy Health to trace. " From us," exclaimed a lowly (lower, "The nymph ha* many a day been gone; But now she nsts within the bower Where yonder hawthorn blooms alone," Quick to that bower I ran—l Sow, And yet no nymph I there could find; But fresh the breeze of morning blow, And Autumn gay, and Flora kind. From thence my footsteps I retraced And sought the lovely chrysanthemum, With which the fairy's hall was graced; But sought in vain for the ainomum. If I returned sedate and slow, What if the nymph I could not see?— The blush that passed along my brow Was proof of her divinity, And still her votary to prove, And still her dulcet smiles to sharo, I'll tread the fields, I'll haunt the grove, With untired steps and fondest care. Tb PiunnruM Salvkrb Jubeo. Cambridge, May, 1S!)3,