Snow-Flakes

Snow-Flakes

by Mattie Bell

Are the snow-flakes pearly flowers

That in the skies have birth,

And gently fall in gleaming showers

Upon this barren earth?

Or, are they fleecy locks of wool,

From sheep that wander by

The silver streams, that, singing, roll

Through valleys in the sky?

Or, are they downy feathers, cast

By little birds above,

And hurried earthward by the blast,

Bright messengers of love?

No, they are pearly blossoms, flung

From heaven's airy bowers,

To recompense us for the loss

Of summer's blooming flowers.

The Butterfly

The Butterfly

author unknown

"Don't kill me," caterpillar said,

As Clara raised her heel,

Upon the humble worm to tread,

As though it could not feel.

"Don't kill me- I will crawl away,

And hide me from your site,

And when I come, some other day,

You'll view me with delight."

The caterpillar went and hid

In some dark, quiet place,

Where none could look on what he did,

To change his form and face.

And then, one day, as Clara read

Within a shady nook,

A butterfly, superbly dressed,

Alighted on her book.

His shining wings were dotted o'er

With gold, and blue, and green,

And Clara owned she naught before

So beautiful had seen.

The Shadow

The Shadow

by Peter Parley

One sunny day a child went Maying-

When lo, while 'mid the zephyrs playing,

He saw his shadow at his back!

He turned and fled, but on his track

The seeming goblin came apace,

And step for step gave deadly chase!

Weary at last, with desperate might

The urchin paused and faced the fright,

When lo, the demon, thin and gray,

Faded amid the grass away!

'Tis thus in life-when shadows chase,

If we but meet them face to face,

What seemed a fiend in fear arrayed,

Sinks at our feet a harmless shade.

Babies Afraid of Their Shadows:

• Compilation
• Toddler scared of her shadow
• Baby scared of his shadow