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William Cowper

The Little Sunbeam.

LITTLE sunbeam in the sky Said to itself one day, "I'm very small, yet why should I Do nothing else but play?

I'll go down to the earth and see If there is any work for me."

The violet beds were wet with dew, Which filled each drooping cup ; The little sunbeam darted through, And raised their blue heads up.

They smiled to see it, and they lent The morning breeze their sweetest scent.

A mother safe beneath a tree Had left her babe asleep ; It woke and cried, but when it spied The little sunbeam peep So slyly in, with glance so bright, It laughed and chuckled with delight.

Away, away, o'er land and sea The merry sunbeam went:

A ship was on the waters free From home and country sent ; But sparkling in that joyous ray, The blue waves danced around her way..

A voyager gazed with weary eye, And heart of bitter pain; With the bright sunbeam from the sky Lost hope sprang up again. "The waves," he said, "are full of glee.

Then yet there may be some for me."

The sunbeam next did not disdain A window low and small; It entered at the cottage pane, And danced upon the wall.

A pale young face looked up to meet The radiance she had watched to greet..

So up and down, and to and fro, The sunbeam glanced about; And never door was shut, I know, To keep the stranger out.

But lo! where'er it touched the earth It seemed to wake up joy and mirth.

I can not tell the history Of all that it could do; But this I tell, that you may try To be a sunbeam too- By little smiles and deeds of love, Which cheer like sunshine from above. 1. avidson