Brooks's Readers, Third Year Part 32

You have a work that no other can do; Do it so bravely, so kindly, so well, Angels will hasten the story to tell.

Dare to be right! Dare to be true!

The failings of others can never save you.

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith; Stand like a hero and battle till death.

WHAT WOULD I DO?

If I were a bird I would warble a song, The sweetest and finest that ever was heard, And build me a nest in the old elm tree; Oh, that's what I'd do if I were a bird!

If I were a flower I'd hasten to bloom, And make myself beautiful all the day through, With drinking the suns.h.i.+ne, the wind, and the rain; Oh, if I were a flower, that's what I'd do!

If I were a brook I would sparkle and dance Among the green fields where sheep and lambs stray, And call, "Little lambkins, come hither and drink;"

Oh, if I were a brook, that is what I would say!

If I were a star I would s.h.i.+ne wide and bright To guide the lone sailor on ocean afar, And travelers, lost in the desert and woods; Oh, that's what I'd do if I were a star!

But I know that for me other tasks have been set, For I am a child and can nothing else be; I must sit at my lessons, and, day after day, Learn to read and to spell, and to add one, two, and three.

Yet perhaps if I try I shall sometime find out How the birds sing so sweetly, how the roses grow red, What the merry brook says to the moss-covered stones, And what makes the stars stay so high overhead.