WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.
THE BUTTERFLY AND THE BEE.
"The Butterfly and the Bee," by William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850), is
recommended by some school-girls. It carries a lesson in favour of the
worker.
Methought I heard a butterfly
Say to a labouring bee:
"Thou hast no colours of the sky
On painted wings like me."
"Poor child of vanity! those dyes,
And colours bright and rare,"
With mild reproof, the bee replies,
"Are all beneath my care.
"Content I toil from morn to eve,
And scorning idleness,
To tribes of gaudy sloth I leave
The vanity of dress."
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES.
AN INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP.
"An Incident of the French Camp," by Robert Browning (1812-89), is
included in this volume out of regard to a boy of eight years who did
not care for many poems, but this one stirred his heart to its depths.
You know, we French storm'd Ratisbon:
A mile or so away
On a little mound, Napoleon
Stood on our storming-day;
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,
Legs wide, arms lock'd behind,
As if to balance the prone brow
Oppressive with its mind.
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