Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-05-10
by THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR.

ELL, It's DCen an hunurcu years ago
this very day, since a sweet little child,
who had the bluest eyes, and hair like your
own little Martha, came bounding along a
path aud rolled in the green grass plat, and
shouted, and fairly sung for joy in a great
garden, whercon the morning sun shone
brightly as the heart could wish.
Now, that little child was not alone-I
would not that you should think he was for
a moment; for there were fifty there before
him, and how many more, | must tell you,
Irellly don't know. a great many tho
and there was not a face in all that great
chill lgroup that had a sorrow upon it
And / love TO tell you that. He held his
hands upon his cars as he came bounding
into the garden, so great was the sounds Of
the glad ones, as they sang and shouted to-
gether. And he stopped by a little brook
and n green tree and called out:
What are you doing?
Playing said they all, don't you new
or playY
And they gave him a kite, a paper boat,
a bat and ball, q top, a bow and so many
toys that / have not the time to mention
them all. And the little child did as
those who had played in the garden before
him he tossed up his kite and shouted for
Joy, and bowed down, and clapped his
hands together, 50 glad was he to see the
kite sail over the garden almost as high as
the bright clouds that the rising sun SHIN
mercd with silvcr.tints and fringed with
gold.
And he tied the kite string to a willow
bough and let it Fly of itself. Then tossed
up his ball, hoated his paper boat in the
brook, whipped ~hisspinning top among the
gravel in the walk and played with his mer-
~ fellows follow my leader : 'captivc's
base : Nan, Nan, thread the needlej'-
'Neighbor, Neighbor, fetch the Ratchet
'Aide and seek among the orange bushes
and dahlias and a great many other games
that | have forgotten.
The sun was so bright on the garden ;
the flowers so sweet the grass beds so
green the red and yellow birds, in apple
and willow bows so full of song the brook
and rill so clear and ripping; and the
Lreezes so pure and gentle--coming, from
where he knew not-going, he wondered
whcre-that he thought the garden, oil
which the morning sun shone, was the
greatest place in the wide, wide world, anC
he felt willingto stay there and play a lonI
time with his merry mates.
But the sun went up higher and higher
and the merry fellows in the garden wen
out one by one, and sometimes two by two
ut u great gate into a great road that LEI
straight off towards where one might thin
the sun would set. The child felt vexe
at this, because they seemed ready to qui
playing and go away the way the great roa
led. Andhe gathered up the toys and sat b
them ut the brOoksido, saying, in his hear
that he would not leave that blessed ga
den, tho they all went away quite out
sight. And he sat there a good while lool
uTcn nc nad ever seen.
Well, they went away by ones and twC
until they were all gone except the chi,
who sat on the brook bank, master Of ball
bats, boats, kites and what not. When The
were all gone and a great way from Il
garden, the child looked around, and, f
the first time in all the morning, he fe
lonely and like to have wept, and did, f
what | know, q great deal.
II was u stout resolution the child form,
that tho they went away he would not );
but when he was alone in that great gard,
with no companions but the birds in t
bough, whose songs were growing weak, t
the sun was getting too old and hot t
them to sing much, and the brook, who
little waves were falling lower and lowe
he felt 50 loLely that he arose and hid t
toys, and went out at the g~ateinto the ore
road to travel. And travel he did, a gre
days journey, too.
nc vyLok IA, e,,v orl xvIcf he l,o,r1 M,
THoy, and hear and see.
l may as we'll tell you that the chill
name was VIAToR, and that will save INT
time and trouble to us both, ere we
done telling about his travels.
Well he went out into the great road a
travelled on briskly as he could walk so
ten, iftcen-I will not say how far, fol
would only be a guess but the sun '
higher than it was at the garden when
left.
Now, his way lay through woods q
sometimes through fields and there W
flowers by the way side and birds in
boughs, not a few and he saw, more Il
once, some blossoms in the very middle
the road, and on plucking at one he b
his fingers smartly and though the b
SONS looked tempting to the sight {
smell, yet he Stunned them ever after, Q
somehow learned that all such were I'll
ties.
As / was saying, he walked until
sun was higher in the great sky abo,
and all at once, as by magic, he came
where there was as many boys and g
too as heart could wish. They were all
n little white house on a hillside, with 81
oaks about it, and a meadow with flow
all over it, and a clear pond in the mid,
away down in the vale behind it, and t
were all orderly and quiet and spoke
tiously one to the other in whispers.
tor looked at them, wondering what all
meant and exclaimed
'Why, what are you all doing here /?
Learning whispered a black eyed
with his chin resting on the top of his 81
don't you never learn?
And a tall man with a solemn face
scarcely ever smiled gave him books,
he learned withthe rest what was \, B
G.; and then all aboutwords, Rule 9th
the king, logarithms, old England, S
mon, Scion, Cicero, Homer, Croesus, CIR
mars, Nations, Illiads and more tn;
could tell all the day long. Besides I
had pretty little books, brimful of {
reading and pictures to match, in red