Читать книгу The Peep of Day - Favell Lee Mortimer - Страница 12

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God had made a great many things, but none of these things were alive. At last he made some living things. He spoke, and the water was filled with fishes, more than could be counted.

Some were very small, and some were very large. Have you heard of the great whale? It is a fish as long as a church. Fishes are cold, and they have no feet, and they cannot sing, nor speak.

God made some creatures, more beautiful than fish, to fly about in the air. The birds:—they perched upon the trees, and sang among the branches.

Birds have wings, and are covered with feathers of all colors. The robin has a red breast; the goldfinch has some yellow feathers; and the jay some blue ones: but the peacock is the most beautiful of birds. It has a little tuft upon its head, and a long train that sweeps behind; sometimes it spreads out its feathers, and they look like a large fan. The thrush, the blackbird and the linnet can sing sweetly: but there is one bird that can sing more sweetly still—it is the nightingale. At night, when all the other birds have left off singing, the nightingale may be heard in the woods.

Some birds swim upon the water; such as geese, and ducks, and the beautiful swan, with its long neck and its feathers like the snow.

Some birds are very tall. The ostrich is as tall as a man. It cannot fly like other birds, but it can run very fast indeed.

The eagle builds its nest in a very high place. Its wings are very strong, and it can fly as high as the clouds.

The gentlest of the birds is the dove. It cannot sing, but it sits alone and moans softly, as if it were sad.

I cannot tell you the names of all the birds, but you can think of the names of some other kinds.

There is another sort of living creatures, called insects. God made them come out of the earth, and not out of the water, like fishes. Insects are small, and creep upon the earth; such as ants. Some insects can fly also; such as bees and butterflies. The bee sucks the juice of flowers, and makes wax and honey. How gay are the wings of the butterfly! they are covered with little feathers, too small to be seen.

All the insects were good and pretty when God made them.

CHRIST RAISING TO LIFE THE LITTLE MAID.

At last God made the beasts. They came out of the earth when God spoke. Beasts walk upon the earth; the most of them have four legs. You know the names of a great many sorts of beasts. Sheep and cows, dogs and cats, are beasts. But there are many other sorts besides: the squirrel that jumps from bough to bough, the rabbit that lives in a hole underground, and the goat that climbs the high hills; the stag with his beautiful horns, the lion with his yellow hair, the tiger, whose skin is marked with stripes. The elephant is the largest of beasts, the lion is the strongest, the dog is the most sensible, the stag is the most beautiful, but the lamb is the gentlest. The dove is the gentlest of the birds, and the lamb is the gentlest of the beasts.

Now God had filled the world with living creatures, and they were all good; even lions and tigers were good and harmless. I have told you of four sorts of living creatures:

1. Fishes. 2. Birds. 3. Insects. 4. Beasts.

All these creatures have bodies, but they have not souls like you. They can move and breathe. God feeds them every day, and keeps them alive. The Lord is good to them all.

When God first clothed the earth with green

And sprinkled it with flow’rs,

There was no living creature seen

Within its pleasant bow’rs.

Soon by his word God fill’d the earth,

And waters underneath,

With things above the plants in worth,

That feel and move and breathe.

The fishes, cover’d o’er with scales

In ocean swiftly glide;

With their vast tails the wondrous whales

Scatter the waters wide,

The birds among the branches sing,

And chief the nightingale:

The peacock shines with painted wing,

The dove does softly wail.

Insects with humming fill the air,

And sparkle in the sun:

The butterfly by colors fair

Surpasses every one.

The beasts tread firmly on the ground;

The goat has nimble feet,

The stag’s with branching antlers crown’d;

The lamb’s most soft and sweet.

Pleasure the whole creation fills;

They leap, they swim, they fly;

They skim the plains, they climb the hills,

Or in the valleys lie.

With herb for meat the Lord provides

His numerous family;

The lion with the lamb abides,

The dove and hawk agree.

In all the woods and no sound of strife,

Or piteous moans arise;

None takes away his fellow’s life,

And none expiring lies.

Those happy days, alas! are past,

And death has entered here;

Why did they not forever last,

And when did death appear?