An examination of the quality and age of the fruit now took place; everything which had passed among the children, in their play, was repeated, seriously, before the caliph, in the divan. The treachery of Noureddin was apparent, when the child, instead of ordering him to be hanged, looked up to the caliph, and said, Commander of the Faithful, this is not play; it is your majesty that must condemn him to death, and not I, though I did it last night among my comrades."

66

The caliph, fully convinced of Noureddin's villainy, ordered him into the hands of his ministers of justice, and confiscated his effects to the use of Ali Cogia. Then, turning to the kadi, the monarch reprehended him severely, and bade him learn from that child how to do his duty in the future. At the close of the divan, the caliph again embraced the boy, and sent him home to his parents, with a purse of gold and the applause his early abilities deserved.

Sister, lean close to me, that we may kiss. Here we go rising, rising but to where ?

SECOND VIOLET

Indeed I cannot tell, nor do I care:

It is so warm and pleasant here. But hark! What strangest sound was that above the

dark?

FIRST VIOLET

As if our sisters all together sang

Seemed it not so?

SECOND VIOLET

More loud than that it rang;

And louder still it rings, and seems more

near.

Oh! I am shaken through and through with

fear

Now in some deadly grip I seem confined! Farewell, my sister! Rise, and follow, and find.

FIRST VIOLET

From how far off those last words seemed to fall!

Gone where she will not answer when I call! How lost? how gone? Alas! this sound above me

"Poor little violet, left with none to love thee!"

And now, it seems, I break against that sound!

What bitter pain is this that binds me round,

This pain I press into! Where have I

come?

AFTER

A CROCUS

Welcome, dear sisters, to our fairy home!

They call this

- Spring.

Garden, and the time is