Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1884 — Pansy Faces. [ARTICLE]

Pansy Faces.

Did jOu ever pass a bed of pansies in full bloom, with their faces ail looking westward to the golden glory of the setting suaF" If yon hare, did yon stop and watch their sweet faces? No? Ah, von do not know what you have missed! Here is a bed, now, where all the colors, gold, purple, black, vie with each other in their tints and dyes. Look at that great purple one, rising high above the rest, its head tilted back half scornfully, as if proud of its stately little self. There, a short distance away* a mischievous little golden one laughs at the queenly air of its sister flower, and then gazes slyly into a dewdrop opposite to see if its own little merry face is not winsome enough to attract the notioe of a handsome butterfly who is fluttering past. Ah! gay little pansy, nodding so blithely on your green stalk, take care; do you see that pretty gold and purple pansy hiding its head in that corner ? Only yesterday it was as merry and happy as your wee self, holding up its face for the kisses of that very same gay butterfly, who danced around her all day long; now she is deserted, while he, hwpfly fluttering here and there, has quite forgotten her, and her little heart is broken. Take care, little golden flower, lest , you, too, fall a victim to the fascinations of so dangerous a denizen of society; better to listen to. honey-bee, with his drowsy Vill be good and kind. ■ There, my friend, look over in that far-away comer; do you see a pale, sweet little pansy binding itself] one which, crushed and trampled, lies, on the ground at her feet ? She' fotaktf like a Sister of Oharitv. There, a little apart from the rest, their heads bobbing back and forth; are two sober-looking ones; you would not think they could harm anything, but oh I the scandal they are talking. What miniatures they are of human lives’! They preach their little sermons eloquently, if only we would listen and take heed; they tell us of the love of the Father who plaeod them here for us. How often in life we meet characters like the pansies. Sometimes we see ahaughty 7 woman, proud of her wealth and station, and holding herself aloof from those whose misfortune, or fortune, it is not to possess much of this world's goods. She is the purple' pansy. Sometimes wo meet those who' were once careless, happy, merry girls, whose young spirits are forever crushed, and whose lives are spoiled by some butterfly of fashion, who, attracted by their pretty faces, made them the toy of the hour, to be thrust aside as worthless when some newer beauty steps across their path. Sad, alas, is the fate of these, the merry, golden-faced pansies. Then we so often see in real, yes, very real, life a young girl, poor and alone, jostled by the throng till, bruised and (trashed like the pale little flower, she gives up, tired out with buffeting the waves of life, until some calm, gentle sister of charity—perhaps not in the conventional garb, but none the less a sister for all that—comes, and, like the good Samaritan, soothes and comforts, binds up the bruises, cheers the sad heart, renews the failing courage, and sends her, thus comforted, on her way again; it is sad that there are not more true “sisters” in this wide world of ours. Then there are the gossips, eternally telling tales of their neighbors over their cups of tea, and making more misery by their “social talks” than a half-dozen sisters can remedy in a month. Well, it takes all kinds of pansies to make a flower-bed, and it takes all kinds of people to make a world.' If we would all, like the little sister pansy, do our mite to aid and comfort the desponding ones, how much happier the world would be; it only takes the drops to make the mighty river. Ljet us leave the pansies now, still turned to the west, the dew falling like a benediction on their upturned faces; but may we always follow the right as the flowers their sun, and receive the many blessings heaped upon us as gratefully as they do the dew.—Exchange.