The Brother and Sister Author:Ellis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE YOUTHFUL INSTRUCTER." CHILD. Hark ! mother, hark ! Is that the song of the thrush, or the blackbird ? For I never can tell which it is, they are both ... more »so full of joy ; they are pleased, I dare say, to be alive and awake again, when the bright morning comes ; and to find the same beautiful trees and flowers all around them, which they saw before they closed their eyes to sleep last night. Mother. And not the birds only, my child; but even those very trees and flowers seem glad. And see how the lambs are skipping on yon sunny bank, and chasing each other among the furze and broom ; while the sober herds look scarcely less pleased to browse among the buttercups and daisies, cropping the short sweet grass, and then lying down as if to think how peaceful and how- pleasant are their lives. Child. And are not you happy, too, mother ? Or, do you like the evening better than the morning? Mother. 1 believe you have guessed my thoughts; for to me the close of the day brings many pleasures, the morning many cares. CHILD. But do you not like to hear the cawing of the rooks, the sparrows chirping their " good morning" to each other, and the swallows, with softer voices, whispering what they want to say. Mother. Yes, all these are welcome and pleasant sounds, yet still I must prefer the evening, when the rooks come home from the fields, flapping their weary wings over the old elms—when the sparrows have ceased to chirp—and when the swallows have dipped their feathers for the last time in the willow-shaded brook. Child. The busy bees too, that buz out of their hive as if all the business in the world was done by them ; the old hens that look so proud to teach their chickens how to take care of themselves; and the laborers going out to work—you have fo...« less