Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2Daniel, George
History
Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2
Daniel, George
England -- Social life and customs
Trees shall blossom, birds shall sing;
The blushing rose, the lily fair
Deck sweet summer's bright parterre--
Flocks and herds, the bounding steed
Shall, sporting, crop the flowery mead,
And bounteous Nature yield again
Her ripen'd fruits and golden grain.
Ere the landscape fades from view,
As behind yon mountains blue
Sets the sun in glory bright--
And the regent of the night,
Thron'd where shines the blood-red Mars,
With her coronet of stars,
Silvers woodland, hill and dell,
Lovely Autumn! fare thee well.
Was Mr. Bosky in love with the songstress or the song? Certes his manner
seemed unusually hurried and flurried; and one or two of his forced
whistles sounded like suppressed sighs. So absent was he that, not
regarding how far we had left him in the rear, he stood for a few
minutes motionless, as if waiting for echo to repeat the sound!
We thought--it might be an illusion--that a fair hand waved him a
graceful recognition. At all events the spell was soon broken, for he
bounded along to us like the roe, with
“Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires at a mile-a.”
The laughing Autolicus! It was his blithesome note that first made us
acquainted with Uncle Timothy!
The remembrance of boyhood is ever pleasing to the reflective mind. The
duties that await us in after-life; the cares and disappointments that
obstruct our future progress cast a shade over those impressions that
were once interwoven with our existence. But it is only a shade; recall
but one image of the distant scene, and the whole rises in all its
freshness and verdure; touch but one string of this forgotten harmony,
and every chord shall vibrate!
“Arma, vi-rump que cane-o!” exclaimed the Lauréat, pointing to his old
schoolmaster, who was leaning over his rustic garden-gate, reading his
favourite Virgil. And how cordial was their greeting! The scholar played
his urchin pranks over again, and the master flourished a visionary
birch. Mr. Bosky hurried us into the playground; (his little garden
was still there, but it looked not so trim and gay as when he was its
horticulturist!) led us into the school room, pointed out his veritable
desk, notched at all corners with his initials; identified the
particular peg whereon, in days of yore, hung his (too often) crownless
castor; and recapitulated his boyish sports, many of the sharers of
which he happily recognised in the full tide of prosperity; and not a
few sinking under adverse fortune, whose prospects were once bright and
cheering, and whose bosoms bounded with youth, and innocence, and joy!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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