A few of the springtime flowers,
And the summer blossoms sweet,
Agreed, at the early autumn,
In a locust grove to meet,
And there to hold communion,
By the light of the setting sun,
And each relate or mention
Some kind act they had done.
And he whose deed was noblest
Should, at the close of day,
Be colonel of the regiment,
And lead the ranks away.
So, one by one I watched them
Assemble where the trees
Had lowered their limbs to listen
And halted every breeze.
A Rose in the richest satin,
With a bud to her bonnet tied,
Was first to break the silence
That reigned on every side.
“I lived with a lovely lady,
In a handsome house of brick,
And went with her each morning,
To wait upon the sick.
“I’ve leaned beside the pillows,
Where wounded soldiers lay,
And I wept at the funeral service,
Of an orphan child to-day.”
“I bloomed in an humble garden,
Where an old man used to look,”
Said the Johnquil, “ere the snow-drift
His window-sill forsook.”
“A poor bee shivered homeward
One night,” the Tulip said,
“Fell through my scarlet curtains,
And died upon my bed.”
“I looked in at a window,
And made two lovers kiss,”
The Pansy owned, and laughing
Said it was not amiss.
“I went into a palace,”
The Lily then replied,
“And held the veil that evening
Of a happy-hearted bride.”
“I sweetened the room of a poet,
And o’er his coffin wept,”
The Heliotrope low whispered,
And back in the shadows crept.
“O, that was very noble,”
Exclaimed the Golden-rod,
“I tried to gather the sunshine
And hold it up to God.
“To make the world less sober,
To make the heart less sad,
Was all the mission, brethren,
Your humble servant had.”
* * * * *
In the ranks of that floral army
That marched at the close of day,
That sunny-featured blossom
Was the one that led the way.