Part II. 177
BIRDS AND FLOWERS, AND OTHER COUNTRY THINGS:
The Stormy Peterel 184
The Poor Man’s Garden 186
The Oak-Tree 190
The Carolina Parrot 192
Morning Thoughts 198
Harvest Field-Flowers 199
Summer Woods 200
The Cuckoo 203
The Use of Flowers 206
Sunshine 207
Summer 209
The Child and the Flowers 211
Childhood 212
L’Envoi 216
SKETCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY:
The Coot 219
The Eagle 221
The Garden 223
The Spider and the Fly 226
TALES IN VERSE:
Andrew Lee 230
The Wanderer’s Return 232
A Swinging Song 239
Ellen More 240
A Day of Disaster 244
The Young Mourner 249
The Soldier’s Story 251
The Child’s Lament 257
A Day of Hard Work 260
The Old Man and the Carrion Crow 264
The Little Mariner 268
MISCELLANEOUS PIECES:
The Sale of the pet Lamb of the Cottage 274
America 278
Mourning on Earth 291
Rejoicing in Heaven 292
An English Grave at Mussooree 293
A Forest Scene in the days of Wickliffe 297
MEMOIR
OF
MARY HOWITT.
Mary Howitt was born at Coleford, in Gloucestershire, where her parents were making a temporary residence; but shortly after her birth they returned to their accustomed abode at Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, where she spent her youth. The beautiful Arcadian scenery of this part of Staffordshire was of a character to foster a deep love of the country; and is described with great accuracy in her recent prose work “Wood Leighton.” By her mother she is descended from an ancient Irish family, and also from Wood, the ill-used Irish patentee, who was ruined by the selfish malignity of Dean Swift,--from whose aspersions his character was vindicated by Sir Isaac Newton. A true statement of the whole affair may be seen in Ruding’s “Annals of Coinage.” Charles Wood, her grandfather, was the first who introduced platina into England from Jamaica, where he was assay-master. Her parents being strict members of the society of Friends, and her father being, indeed, of an old line who suffered persecution in the early days of Quakerism, her education was of an exclusive character; and her knowledge of books confined to those approved of by the most strict of her own people, till a later period than most young persons become acquainted with them. Their effect upon her mind was, consequently, so much the more