BIRDS SET FREE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 367, 11 May 1889, Page 8

BIRDS SET FREE.

The day was rarp, and the skips were fair In a town by the deep seaside, And ships fiwip many a clime were there, On the breast of the ocean tide. This day a passenger came ashore, Whose face was careworn and pale, He stopped where a cage was hung- at adoor With birds that were kept for sale. Sotnelooked as if they had beenin the wars, And sad as poor birds could be ; They fluttered against the prison bars, And struggled in vain to be free. A very keen foelinerthe man displayed, And the tenrdrop dimmed his eyo, " Come, what is the price of a bird ?" he said, ' k For I am prepared to buy." The price was said and the money he paid, In a minute the bird was free ; "I'll purchase them all," the sti anger said, " And here is their price for thee," As each one fled, the man's heart was glad, For it sent back a note of glee. The people around said, '* You must be mad To let all these birds go i"ice," ♦' For years," he said » on a foreign strand, I wan bound with a captive's chain, And ob ! how I longed for my native land, To be free on its hills again. These captives I am so glad to saye — Their fats was too much for me, For only one who has been a slave, Can tell what it is to be free." As slaves we all have been led away ; But those who have found the koy Are glad to open the bars to-day For those who would fain be free. When we were all in the cage of vice, And earth could no ransom pay, One paid the price, and in him we rejoice, For we can be free to-day,

Wompn find a sen of trouble in their housekeeping. Some one says they often put as much worry and anxiety into a loaf of bread, a pie, a cake, into the weekly washing and ironing, as bhoul 1 suffice for much weightier matters. Suppose these things go wrong to-day, the to morrows are coming in which to try again, and the thing is not worth clouding your own spirit and those around you, injuring yourself and them physically— for the mind effects the body — and for such a trifle. When a thing is beyond lepair, waste no useless regiet over it and do no idle f letting. Strive for that seienity of spirit that will enable you to make the best of all things. That means contentment in its best sense.