EVENING PRIMROSES.

While gray was the summer evening,

Hast never a small sprite seen

Lighting the fragrant torches

For the feast of the Fairy Queen?

The buds on the primrose-bushes

Upspring into yellow light

But ever the wee deft spirit

Escapes my bewildered sight.

Yet oft, through the dusky garden,

A dainty white moth will fly,

Or, pink as a pink rose-petal,

One lightly will waver by.

Perhaps ’tis the shape he comes in,

Perhaps it is he indeed,

Sir Moth, or the merry Cobweb,

Or the whimsical Mustard-seed!