Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-01-28
BY G. HARRY DAVIS.


hills, smiling II bright good-morrow
to the gladdened flowers, and batheo
my brow in it's rising radiance.
have watched it rs it sank in " western
valleys, clarifying The fields with /;
golden goodnight, and felt cnnobled
by its roseate beauty; and then, fion
beyond the horizon, | have seen its
last goodbye crimSoning and purpl
ing some floating cloud in the even
ing zenith, and seeming to say: 81
am going, but will rcilrn again, and
till | come, | leave you with the
evening and the morning stars"
have seen it fleck the trce-tops with
its fnll-born glory, and seek out the
hidden flower, that it might kiss it in
to beauty.
1t sparkles on the frozen face OF
winter and softens it into spring. I,
unlocks the chained waters, and
sends them leaping, dancing, and
cascading to mighty rivers. Ii
dwells upon the summer grain and
ripens it for the garnoring and the
''harvest home" 1t spans the world
with its rainbow of beauty and prom
Use, and echoes in It's constant circl-
ings the ioy-song Of the morning
stars. joyful, bright, and merry sun
shine! How the wearied and diving
strains the dimming eye to catch its
latest CLEAN; how glad is the mourn
ing heart when it pierces the dark
caverns Of its despair; how it wakes
the birds to music melody, and
bushes nature III rest. How happy
it makes us, how noble, how good
for was it not born OF Him who sits
amid the valleys Of the New JcrulSa-
leni-;he Sun thereof?
And | love tiowers--whitherso
ever they come, either from the
quiet 81 de by the brook-side, the
crags of uplifted peaks, or The gardens
of wealth and cultivation; and what
ever their kind-whethcr the violet
nodding on its slender stem, the daisy
of the earliest spring time, the lilies
Of the field or the lilies of the valley,
the stray and tiny one that keeps
above the mountains slope in all
the beauty OF natures wilderness, or
the nurtured and fosterel beauty, de
veloped under the careful hand of
the skiltul florist. | care not where
they are or what they are, l love
them. | would have them on the
pulpit, in the office, in the store and
in the workshop, IN the button-holc
of the man, and the dainty hand of
the woman. Everywhere and any
where that could would have them;
not forgetting the rooms in which
many of you spend your lives in the
pursuit Of your noble profession BY
their presence would gladden. your
hearts, that they might speak the
kindliest, the genllest moods.
Flowers. Why they bind us with
softe,t links to the eternal gardens,
where they shall blossom and bloom
WITHOUT decay-they remind us Of
the stainlessness OF Paradise, and
teach lis of purity to come. When
they look at lis with their tiny cups
filled with the dcws Of the morning,
they teach us of another morning,
when we shall rise in tue twilight of
the coming day cleansed by the dews
of saving grace.
And | love childrens I don't know
why. | don't know why loved my
mother, now sleeping so sweetly be-
meath the stars that twinkle DER her
grave, while the anthem of her life
mingles in the breeze that sings to
the green sod that covers her, "She
hath done what she could" She
comes to me in dreams-she guards
and guides, ministering angel that
She is, my daily footsteps; and
memory carries me back through a
long, long vista, to her gentle love
and her faith, and see an up"aisel
finger that points me beyond my life,
beyond the dark waters that surge
upon its beach. over and up and on,
gates aiar, to the land of sun
shine, flowers, and children. Moral
with the stern precision
of the law, would call this love
natural love and affection, Mayhap
it is; we accept the reason. affirm
the fact; and when | look down
their childish eyes, so full
Of truth, to the depth of their unsul-
lied hearts-when catch the merry
prattle of their voices, or r'in my fin
gers through the curly ringlets of
their hair-when their tiny hand
twines itself around my manlier
finger, or | catch them in my arms
that theirs may encircle my neck
when I romp with them i'll their
glee, or soothc them in their
sorrow, love them, and |
love them as | love my mother. l
love my own first, best, and dearest,
| love others too, and | would rather
20 to my grave with requiem sung
by children's hearts, with children to
weep tears and children to plant
flowers, than amid the booming of
guns, the halt-masting of flags, and
the soelmn dirgc Of earth's heroes.
Yes, love sunshine, I love flow.
ers, and | love children. Nature
teaches me that sunshine is necessary
for tho blossom, the bloom, and the
development of flowers. Experience
caches me that sunshine is necessary
or the blossom, the bloom, and the
development of children.
Children sometimes flourish in the
heat Of the nursery, and
ire beautiful III the whitencss Of fine
inen and the jewels of wealth, but
hey grow up ale and sickly, weari
y dragging their LIES work behind
hem, or an early death kisses them
way to the sunlight Of the upper
world, that they may bloom there as
hey COLD not here.
And this is true Of the sunshine that
,parkles in the face and the dcport,
nent of the teacher, and he or
he is the most successful in your
proud vocation who carries on each |
morning to the class, and
o each and every scholar thereof, Il
bright and smiling face and happy
,eart. 1t may seem presumption to