XXIX. Quarrelsome Children.

THE currants were ripe, and the gooseberries red,

And very few strawberries left on their bed:

Sweet blossoms and buds were beginning to shoot,

And some were decaying and changing to fruit.

When Charlotte and George in the garden were

seen,

To walk hand in hand where the gravel was clean,

How pleasing to see them good humoured and

merry;

Their cheeks had the bloom of the rose or the

cherry.

When a butterfly roving, that George chanc'd to

see,

Made these happy children at length disagree:.

For he, quite delighted, did all in his power

To catch it when perch'd on a beautiful flower;

And Charlotte his sister was angry at that,

And stopp'd little George, and ran off with his hat.

Quarrelsome Children.

(continued.)

To their mother at last in the parlour they ran,

And noisily speaking together began,

"George shan't catch the butterfly, I'm sure of

that."

"I will catch the butterfly; give me my hat!"

Such quarrelsome children, the mother replied,

I find it much better all day to divide:

Go, stand in that corner, and George do you stand

In another, and each hold a rod in your hand.

Though both had been naughty, 'tis proper to say,

They did not their mother's commands disobey:

They went to their corners and own'd before long,

For brother and sister to quarrel is wrong.