AN EARLY START.

The dark had not unwrapped the skies When I awoke, and rubbed my eyes. The world was full of chirping birds, I heard their soft, half-sleepy words. I tiptoed softly on the floor, I slipped the bolt, stole thro’ the door, And lo! a wondrous world of gray And silver mist before me lay. The white dews wet my small bare feet, As I ran thro’ the meadows, sweet With clover nodding all about, And sleepy hum-bees creeping out. And then a strange thing came to pass; The Sun was sleeping in the grass; He must have wakened when I came, For all at once a rosy flame Peeped at me o’er a little mound, And soon the bright Sun, warm and round Was looking at me, smiling down To see my little slumber-gown. O fair the meadow was to see! The blossoms laughed and spoke to me. And drops like pearls in every place Were hanging on the spider’s lace; And little rainbows everywhere Were dancing in the golden air; And bees, and yellow butterflies, And beetles, brown and big and wise, Went buzzing, flying all about, And busy ants ran in and out, And songs were in the deep-blue sky, —I could not see, they flew so high. But all about these things I know, Because the daisies whispered low, And told me all they knew—much more Than I had ever dreamed before. And broad and white across the day Before me ran the Shining Way.