Page 73 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

fiat Brier-Rost:, as was her won't, she cocked her curly head:
"But 1 curl sing a pretty song,?J full merrily a lie said.

And oft the young [ads shouted, when they saw the maid at jjkiy:
" r iof gOOd-ibr-flolhing Brier-Rose, bow do you do to-day?
Then she shook: her tin)’ fist, to her cheek the color flew ;
“ However rniEch you coax tin;, i'll never dance with you,”

i i .

Thus flew the years light-winged over Brier-Rose’s head,
'Jill ytie \v\i.-\ twenty summers old and vet remained unwed.
And all the parish wondered : “ The Ixird Almighty knows
Whatever s.vr 11 become o f tlint naughty Brier-Rose!'1

And whiie they wondered, came the Spring a-dancing o’er the bills ;
Her breath was warmer than of vore. and all the mountain rill-,
With their tinkling and their rippling and their rushing, filled the air,
And the misty sounds of water forth-welling everywhere.

A n d in the valiey^s depth, like a lusty beast o f prey.
The river leaped and roared aloud and tossed it-? mane of spray ;
Then hushed again its voice to a softly plashing croonh
A s dark it roiled beneath Ihe sun and white- beneath the moon.

It was a merry sight to sec the lumber a* it whirled
A d own the tawny eddies that hissed and seethed and swirled,
Now shooting through (he rapids and, with a reeling swing,
Into the foam-crests diving like an animated thing.

But in the narrows of the rocks, where, o'er a steep incline,
The waters plunged and wreathed in foam the dark boughs o f the pine.
The lads kept watch with shout and song, and sent e^eh struggling beam
■ V-spiiming down the rapids, lest it should lock the .stream.