in the dark?
Here we lie cozily, close to each other;
Hark to the song of the lark--

"Waken!" the lark says, "waken and dress you;
Put on your green coats and gay,
Blue sky will shine on you, sunshine caress you--
Waken! 'tis morning--'tis May!"

Little brown brother, oh! little brown brother,
What kind of flower will you be?
I'll be a poppy--all white, like my mother;
Do be a poppy like me.

What! you're a sunflower? How I shall miss you
When you're grown golden and high!
But I shall send all the bees up to kiss you;
Little brown brother, good-by!

--EMILY NESBIT.

HOW THE FLOWERS GROW

This is how the flowers grow;
I have watched them and I know:

First, above the ground is seen
A tiny blade of purest green,
Reaching up and peeping forth
East and west, and south and north.

Then the sunbeams find their way
To the sleeping bud and say,
"We are children of the sun
Sent to wake thee, little one."

And the leaflet opening wide
Shows the tiny bud inside,
Peeping with half-opened eye
On the bright and sunny sky.

Breezes from the west and south
Lay their kisses on its mouth;
Till the petals all are grown,
And the bud's a flower blown.

--GABRIEL SETOUN.

WISE MEN OF GOTHAM

Once upon a time there were some wise men who lived in Gotham. Listen
and you will hear how wise they were.

Twelve of these wise men went fishing one day. Some went into the stream
and some stayed on dry ground. They caught many fish and had a good
time.

As they came home, one of the men said, "We have risked much wading in
that stream. I pray God no one of us is drowned."

"Why, one of us might be! Who knows?" cried another. "Let's see about
it. Twelve of us went fishing this morning. We must count and see if
twelve are returning."

So one man counted, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten, eleven." And he did not count himself!

"Alas! One of us is drowned!" he cried.

"Woe be unto us! Let me count," said another. And he did not count
himself.

"Alas! alas!" he wailed; "truly one of us is drowned!"

Then every man counted, and each one failed to count himself.

"Alas! alas!" they all cried; "one of us is drowned! Which one is it?"

They went back to the shore, and they looked up and down for him that
was drowned. All the time they were lamenting loudly.

A courtier came riding by. "What are yo