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Modest, yet withal an Elf

Bold, and lavish of thyself;

Since we needs must first have met

I have seen thee, high and low,
Thirty years or more, and yet
'Twas a face I did not know;
Thou hast now, go where I may,
Fifty greetings in a day.

Poets, vain men in their mood!
Travel with the multitude;

Never heed them; I aver

That they all are wanton wooers;

But the thrifty cottager,

Who stirs little out of doors,
Joys to spy thee near her home;
Spring is coming, Thou art come!

Comfort have thou of thy merit,
Kindly, unassuming Spirit!
Careless of thy neighborhood,
Thou dost show thy pleasant face
On the moor, and in the wood,
In the lane; - there's not a place,
Howsoever mean it be,

But 't is good enough for thee.

Ill befall the yellow flowers,
Children of the flaring hours!
Buttercups, that will be seen,
Whether we will see or no;
Others, too, of lofty mien;

They have done as worldlings do,
Taken praise that should be thine,
Little, humble Celandine!

Prophet of delight and mirth,
Ill-requited upon earth;
Herald of a mighty band,
Of a joyous train ensuing,

Serving at my heart's command,
Tasks that are no tasks renewing,
I will sing, as doth behoove,
Hymns in praise of what I love!

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cel'andine: the small celandine belongs to the buttercup family. kingcups: buttercups. - rout: tumult.-trow: think. It is often wrongly used as know. - wanton: roving.

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THE HERO OF HAARLEM1

MARY MAPES DODGE

MRS. MARY MAPES DODGE has been for many years the editor of St. Nicholas. She has also written many delightful books and poems for young people.

NOTE. The book from which this selection is taken is an interesting 5 story of Dutch life.

Many years ago there lived in Haarlem, one of the principal cities of Holland, a sunny-haired boy of gentle disposition. His father was a sluicer; that is, a man whose business it was to open and close the sluices, or 10 large oaken gates that are placed at regular distances across the entrances of the canals to regulate the amount of water that shall flow into them.

The sluicer raises the gates more or less, according to the quantity of water required, and closes them carefully 15 at night, in order to avoid all possible danger of an oversupply running into the canal, or the water would soon overflow it and inundate the surrounding country.

As a great portion of Holland is lower than the level of the sea, the waters are kept from flooding the land only 20 by means of strong dikes, or barriers, and by means of these sluices, which are often strained to the utmost by

1 From "Hans Brinker." Copyright, 1865, 1875, 1893, 1896, by M. M. Dodge. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

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the pressure of the rising tides. Even the little children in Holland know that constant watchfulness is required to keep the rivers and ocean from overwhelming the country, and that a moment's neglect of the sluicer's duty 5 may bring ruin and death to all.

One lovely autumn afternoon, when the boy was about eight years old, he obtained his parents' consent to carry some cakes to a blind man who lived out in the country, on the other side of the dike. The little fellow started on 10 his errand with a light heart, and, having spent an hour with his grateful old friend, he bade him farewell and started on his homeward walk.

Trudging stoutly along by the canal, he noticed how the autumn rains had swollen the waters. Even while 15 humming his careless, childish song he thought of his father's brave old gates and felt glad of their strength; for, thought he, "if they gave way, where would father and mother be? These pretty fields would be all covered with the angry waters. Father always calls them the 20 angry waters; I suppose he thinks they are mad at him for keeping them out so long."

And, with these thoughts just flitting across his brain, the little fellow stooped to pick the pretty blue flowers that grew along his way. Sometimes he stopped to throw 25 some feathery seed ball in the air and watch it as it floated

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