Page:Olive Buds.pdf/104

Rh

or aromatic herbs, or rich flowers for the market. They delighted sometimes to mingle in our severer labours, and when we saw the unwonted exertion, heightening the bloom of their cheeks, or placed in their hair, the half-blown wild rose, to us, who had seen nothing more fair, they seemed perfect in grace and beauty. Sometimes at twilight, or beneath the soft evening air of summer, we mingled in the dance, to the music of our flute and viol. Our parents and our grandmother seated near, enjoyed our pastime, and spoke of their own youth, and of the goodness of the Almighty Sire. Often, assembled in our pleasant parlour, each read in turn to the listening auditory, histories of what man has been, or