THE MAGIC FLOWER.

THROUGH many days and many days

The seed of love lay hidden close;

We walked the dusty tiresome ways

Where never a leaf or blossom grows.

And in the darkness, all the while,

The little seed its heart uncurled,

And we by many a weary mile

Travelled towards it, round the world.

To the hid centre of the maze

At last we came, and there we found —

O happy day, O day of days!

— Twin seed-leaves breaking holy ground.

We dropped life's joys, a garnered sheaf,

And spell-bound watched, still hour by hour,

Magic on magic, leaf by leaf,

The unfolding of our love's white flower.