Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/52

18 PYRUS JAPONICA.

THE FAIRIES' FIRE.

, where the first pale sunbeams of the year

Fall faintly, fearfully, upon the snow,

That rests in wreathed flakes on every twig,

Trained with neat care around the window-frame.

So icy cold is every thing around,

That even sunshine trembles to alight,

Lest it be frozen too.

Ha! are they out?

My summer friends, the fairies? Surely not;

Yet who but they have lit these tiny fires,

That gleam and glow amid the wintry scene?

Yes, here they are, aweary of the storms,

And wrecking winds, and pinching frosts, that keep

Within their darksome prison-house of earth

The gay and spendthrift flowers; here they are,

Lighting their ruddy beacons at the sun