THE BIRTH OF THE FLOWER.

In the Beginning, God, the Great Workman, Fashioned a seed; Cunningly wrought it from waste-stuff left over In building the stars; Then, in the dust and the grime of His Workshop, He rested and pondered— Then, with a smile, flung the animate atom Far into space. As the seed fell through the blue of the heavens Down to the world, Wind, the Great Gardener, seized it in triumph And bore it away; Then, at a sign of the Master, who made it, He planted the seed:— Thus into life sprang the first of the flowers On earth. —John Northern Hilliard.