I entered my parlor one bright summer morn,
My vases with flowers, sweet flowers to adorn.
In arranging the curtains, there fell on my head
A dear little humming-bird, dead-quite deat!
I pressed the poor darling so close to my heart,
And thought that I felt a slight flutter, a start!
Could I but restore it to life, how divine,
How sweet, how delicious a joy would be mine!
I rushed to the garden and placed its long mouth
In the sweet honey-suckle which blooms in the South;
I saw that the humming-bird drew a long breath,
As it tasted the nectar that saved it from death!
The minutes flew past, yet I staid in the bower,
And moved my poor birdling from flower to flower;
At last, with a sweet strain of grateful heart's praise,
It flew upward, far upward, beyond my eyes' gaze.
Thus when you, dear children, are dying in sin-
When all is a void and an aching within-
Drink deep of the nectar of God's holy love,
And your souls will be wafted to mansions above.
My vases with flowers, sweet flowers to adorn.
In arranging the curtains, there fell on my head
A dear little humming-bird, dead-quite deat!
I pressed the poor darling so close to my heart,
And thought that I felt a slight flutter, a start!
Could I but restore it to life, how divine,
How sweet, how delicious a joy would be mine!
I rushed to the garden and placed its long mouth
In the sweet honey-suckle which blooms in the South;
I saw that the humming-bird drew a long breath,
As it tasted the nectar that saved it from death!
The minutes flew past, yet I staid in the bower,
And moved my poor birdling from flower to flower;
At last, with a sweet strain of grateful heart's praise,
It flew upward, far upward, beyond my eyes' gaze.
Thus when you, dear children, are dying in sin-
When all is a void and an aching within-
Drink deep of the nectar of God's holy love,
And your souls will be wafted to mansions above.
