the Jean Ingelow BIRTHDAY BOOK THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY From the collection of Julius Doerner, Chicago Purchased, 1918, ■vu //>rv5 ? ^Cyvi-ocx] - / THE JEAN INGELOW iJtrtpag JSoofc. A birthday : — and now a day that rose With much of hope, with meaning rife — A thoughtful day from dawn to close : The middle day of human life. A Birthday Walk. 2 Tfci: LIBRM §F THE univebssty of* kmm THE JEAN INGELOW 'Btrtfttiap OBooIt BOSTON ROBERTS BROTHERS 1882 tu LIB ml OF TH£ UNIVERSITY OF ILUOM* 4 ? - - ^aituarp It was in the Arctic winter, and the frozen snow was as hard as stone ; it glittered and sparkled, for the stars were bright overhead, and the moon was at the full. It was high tide, and the waves, of a deep leaden gray, were rearing up their great crests and flinging themselves down with a thundering noise on the shore. At a distance you might hear the screaming of sea-birds, as they skimmed with their white wings over the water; and along the skirts of the icebergs you might see the foxes prowling, and catch in the twilight the fiery glitter of their tawny eyes. Besides this there was no sound — no movement ; everything in that starlit night was desolate. The world was turning round under those stars, for they shifted, as it seemed, their places ; and the moon was riding on through the millions upon millions that make up the Milky Way; but beyond this movement there was no change in the heavens from hour to hour, and there was no change or movement beneath them — everything was perfectly white and utterly still. Did I say it was white ? So it was a moment ago ; but it has changed! The whole world and the heavens have undergone a change! There is .a quivering in the sky — a swift spire of flame shoots across the stars. Another! There is a deep glow in the zenith, like a half-transparent crimson cloud. It spreads out suddenly ; then it quivers j it sinks downwards ; it is like a pennon of fire shaken in an angel’s hand. Nowit divides — it multiplies — and flushes a more rosy red; it trails itself out before the stars, and floats across the moon like a veil — a won- derful veil ! The whole heavens are red with it ; and the earth, which was white, has put on a crimson blush — every iceberg has a crimson edge and every wave has a crest of crimson foam. Stories Told to a Child . 5 702442 t — ’ — ■ — January i — O, let me be myself ! But where, O where, Under this heap of precedent, this mound Of customs, modes, and maxims, cumbrance rare Shall the Myself be found ? O thou Myself, thy fathers thee debarred None of their wisdom, but their folly came Therewith ; they smoothed thy path, but made it hard For thee to quit the same. Honors. ' — — — January 2 — The logs burn red ; she lifts her head For sledge-bells tinkle and tinkle, O lightly swung. “ Youth was a pleasant morning, but ah! to think ’t is fled, [was young.” Sae lang, lang syne,” quo’ her mother, “ I, too, No guides there are but the North star, And the moaning forest tossing wild arms before. The maiden murmurs, “ O sweet were yon bells afar, And hark ! hark ! hark ! for he cometh, he nears the door.” Fated to be Free. January 3^ — — — — — When people wish to say — not how great a dis- tance they have to go in order to reach a certain place, but how far it really is straight from point to point — they say it is so far, as the crow flies. Now, Polly, suppose you try to do all you have to do “ as the crow flies.” Don’t be like the robin, which flew down, and then up again, and then stopped, and considered, and fluttered about ; but go on patiently and steadily, “ as the crow flies.” Stories Told to a Child. 6 CIRCUMCISION. January i January 2 January 3 7 January 4 “ I ’m like a good clock,” said Crayshaw, “ I neither gain nor lose. I can strike, too.” Fated to be Free . January 5 — Serve, — woman whom I love, ere noon be high, Ere the long shadow lengthen at thy feet. Work, — I have many poor, O man, that cry, My little ones do languish in the street. Love, — ’t is a time for love, since I love thee. Live, — ’t is a time to live. Man, live in Me. Poems. — January 6 Daughters of Eve ! it was for your dear sake The world’s first hero died an uncrowned king; But God’s great pity touched the grand mistake, And made his married love a sacred thing : For yet his nobler sons, if aught be true, Find the lost Eden in their love to you. Contrasted Songs. 8 January 4 January 5 epiphany , January 6 January y Let them boast of thy word, “ It is certain : We doubt it no more,” let them say, “ Than to-morrow that night’s dusky curtain Shall roll back its folds for the day.” Mopsa the Fairy. - January 8 How difficult it is for us to estimate the many ' ways in which we may be mistaken. When shall we learn to keep the knowledge always present with us, that often kindness is our best uprightness, and our truest justice is mercy? Stories Told to a Child. - Jamiary 9 “ The thing that might have been Is called, and questioned why it hath not been ; And can it give good reason, it is set Beside the actual, and reckoned in To fill the empty gaps of life.” Ah, so The possible stands by us ever fresh, Fairer than aught which any life hath owned, And makes divine amends. Gladys and her Island. 10 January 7 January 8 January 9 January io Peace ! Say thy prayers, and go to sleep, Till some time, One my seal shall break, And deep shall answer unto deep, When He crieth, “Awake! ” Contrasted Songs. January 1 1 — - O that some power would give me Adam’s eyes ! O for the straight simplicity of Eve ! Honors. January 12- Who may inherit next or who shall match The Swan of Avon and go float with him Down the long river of life aneath a sun Not veiled, and high at noon ? — the river of life That as it ran reflected all its lapse And rippling on the plumage of his breast ? Letters on Life a7id 77ie Morning . 12 January 10 January n January 1 2 1 3 January 1 3 “But you know, John,” she answered, as if excus- ing herself, “ we are not at all sure that we shall have any possessions, anything of our own, in the future life — anything, consequently, to give away. Per- haps it will all belong to all. So let us have enough of giving while we can, and enjoy the best part of possession.” Fated to be Free. January 14 I grant to the wise his meed, But his yoke I will not brook, For God taught me to read, — He lent me the world for a book. Songs with Preludes . January 15 Let us do good, not to receive more good in re- turn, but as an evidence of gratitude for what has already been bestowed. In a few words, let it be “all for love, and nothing for reward.” Stories Told to a Child. 15 y unitary 16 While I listened, like young birds, Hints were fluttering ; almost words, — Leaned and leaned, and nearer came ; — Everything had changed its name. Don John . -yanuary 17 — — — — Her love was so fresh, it might no more be with- stood than the moss can withstand the dew that drenches it and makes it sparkle in the morning. Her wonder was more unsated than ever, her hope was more nearly possession than ours. If sorrow came up, it was a dark amazement. Would it not soon be over ? There are many days of sunshine for one thunder-storm. Sarah De Berenger. —y amtary 18 She has an incurable habit of looking at things from the passive point of view. She never says, “I have not understood such and such people,” but always, “They do not understand me;” she never considers, when things occur, what share she may have had in causing them to occur. A Sister* s Bye-Hours. 16 January 16 January 17 January 18 — — — January ig He with good gifts that most is blest, Or stands for God above the rest, Let him so think — “ To serve the dear, The lowlier children I am here. “ It is the children’s bread I break ; He trusts me with it for their sake ; (Hunger I must if none it shares) It is but mine when it is theirs. Poems. — - — yarn ary 20 — — — When I do sit apart And commune with my heart, She brings me forth the treasures once my own ; Shows me a happy place Where leaf-buds swelled apace, And wasting rims of snow in sunlight shone. A Reverie. — - — yanuary 2 1 — — A thing that is very unexpected and moderately strange, we meet with wide-opened eyes, with a start and perhaps exclamations ; but a thing more than strange, utterly unaccounted for, quite unreasonable, and the last thing one could have supposed possible as coming from the person who demanded it, is met in far quieter fashion. Fated to be Free. i8 January , 1 g January 20 January 2 \ January 22 It would be hard to say of any man that he is never right. If he is always thinking that he has forgotten a certain lady, surely he is right some- times. Fated to be Free. January 23 Is life a field ? then plough it up — re-sow With worthier seed — Is life a ship? O heed The southing of thy stars — Is life a breath ? Breathe deeper, draw life up from hour to hour, Aye, from the deepest deep in thy deep soul. Letters on Life and The Morning. January 24 We walk securely under His guidance, without whom “ not a sparrow falleth to the ground ! ” and when we have had escapes that the angels have admired at, we come home and say, perhaps, that “ nothing has happened ; at least nothing particular.” Stories Told to a Child. 20 yanuary 22 yanuary 23 yanuary 24 21 January 25 Sorrow was a ship, I found, Wrecked with them that in her are, On an island richer far Than the port where they were bound. Pain, that to us mortals clings, But the pushing of our wings, That we have no use for yet, And the uprooting of our feet From the soil where they are set. Contrasted Songs. — January 26 - — » — We are much bound to them that do succeed ; But, in a more pathetic sense, are bound To such as fail. They all our loss expound ; They comfort us for work that will not speed, And life — itself a failure. Failure. — January 2 7 — Thoughts are certainly able to spread themselves without the aid of looks or language. Invisible seed that floats from the parent plant can root itself wherever it settles ; and thoughts must have some medium through which they sail till they reach minds that can take them in, and there they strike root, and whole crops of the same sort come up, just as if they were indigenous, and naturally be- longing to their entertainers. This is even more true in great matters than in small. Fated to be Free. 22 -January 2 5 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL January 26 January 27 2 3 - — January 28 There were no duties that she habitually per- formed ; there was no place that she occupied ; no one looked to her or depended on her for anything ; no one seemed to be the better for her ; she seemed to have no more to do with the course of that stream of life on which she floated than the least little piece of weed may have, that, being detached from its stem, goes sailing down its native brook to the sea. The Cumber ers. January 29 Turn your back on the light, and you ’ll follow a shadow. The deaf queen Fate has dumb courtiers. If the hound is your foe, don’t sleep in his kennel. That that is, is. Mop sci the Fairy . January 30 - The happy find Equality of beauty everywhere To feed on. All of shade and sheen is theirs, All the strange fashions and the fair wise ways Of lives beneath man’s own. Letters on Life and The Morning. 24 January 28 January 29 January 30 2 5 January 31 Art tired ? There is a rest remaining. Hast thou sinned ? There is a Sacrifice. Lift up thy head, The lovely world, and the over-world alike, Ring with a song eterne, a happy rede, ‘‘Thy Father loves thee.” Songs with Preludes. 26 January 31 IE LIMAS'? 7 OF THE nmMERSATTr m mm% f efcruarp ♦ — The winter following these little events was ex- tremely mild — so much so, that all the spring flow- ers were in bloom by the middle of February; but at that time the weather suddenly changed ; we had a hard frost, and a remarkably heavy fall of snow. All over the hollow in which our house stood, it was more than five feet deep, and on the side against which the wind blew, the windows were blocked up as high as the top row of panes. When this frost had lasted three weeks there was a sudden thaw and a heavy fall of rain, which riddled the snow full of round holes. In a few days the warm sun was again shining upon the crocuses and snow- drops ; the wet bunches of laurestinus flower began to raise themselves and dry their shining leaves, and the aconites and hepaticas were as gay as ever. A Sister's Bye-Hours . The moon is bleached as white as wool, And just dropping under ; Every star is gone but three, And they hang far asunder, — There ’s a sea-ghost all in gray, A tall shape of wonder ! Songs of the Night Watches . 29 February i “ Nothing like work,” he would reply. " ‘ Blessed be the man that invented sleep/ quoth the Irishman ; but I say, ‘ Happy rest the man that invented saw- ing.’ ” Off the Skelligs. - — February 2 Let me be only sure ; for sooth to tell, The sorest dole — is doubt. Don John . — - — *— — February 3 — I don’t wish to make a kind of occupation of the poor, and go to see them for my own benefit, because I have nothing else to do. I call that playing at charity. Idle men take a little land, you know, and farm it, avowedly for their own amusement. Idle women take a little land (the difference is that on their land are houses instead of weeds), and they farm it, — -only, in place of mangel-wurzel and clover, they sow successive crops of tracts and grocery tickets. A Sister's Bye-Hours. 3 ° February I r — February 2 PURIFICATION. - CANDLEMAS . February 3 31 February 4 Do not expect that in your own strength you can make use of even the best opportunity of doing good. Stories Told to a Child. February 5 Hard is life For some. They would that they could soften it ; And, in the doing of their work, they sigh As if it w T as their choice and not their lot ; And, in the raising of their prayer to God, They crave His kindness for the world He made, Till they, at last, forget that He, not they, Is the true lover of man. Monitions of the Unseen. — February 6 — — — - Reign, and keep life in this our deep desire — Our only greatness is that we aspire. A Snow Mountain. 3 2 February 4 February 5 February 6 February 7 Emily had not one of those poverty-stricken na- tures which are never glad excepting for some special reason drawing them above themselves. She lived in an elevated region full of love and wonder, taking kindly alike to reverence and to hope ; but she was seldom excited, her feelings were not shallow enough to be easily troubled with excitement, or made fitful with agitation. Fated to be Free. February 8 - — - — — In the night she told a story, In the night and all night through, While the moon was in her glory, And the branches dropped with dew. ’T was my life she told, and round it Rose the years as from a deep ; In the world’s great heart she found it, Cradled like a child asleep. Mopsa the Fairy. February 9 People that take charity, sir, can never get it by itself. They always have to take something else with it. Sometimes, what they have with the charity is scolding, and sometimes good advice ; but they never get it neat. A Sister's Bye-Hours. 34 February 8 February 9 35 February 10 “ I ’ll tell you what,” said this puny philosopher, “ I used always to hate the morals, — but it ’s no good ! They ’re in everything. It ’s my belief they ’re a part of the world. Yes, they ’re ingrain ! ” Off the Skelligs . — February 1 1 O Fancy, if thou flyest, come back anon, Thy fluttering wings are soft as love’s first word, And fragrant as the feathers of that bird, Which feeds upon the budded cinnamon. Fancy . February 12 Life is not enough, Nor love, nor learning, — Death is not enough Even to them, happy, who forecast new life ; But give us now and satisfy us now, Give us now, now, to live in the life of God, Give us now, now, to be at one with Him. Letters on Life and The Morning . 36 February io- February 1 1 February 12 37 February 13 There are some days that die not out, Nor alter by reflection’s power, Whose converse calm, whose words devout, For ever rest, the spirit’s dower. And they are days when drops a veil — A mist upon the distance past ; And while we say to peace — “ All hail ! ” We hope that always it shall last. A Birthday Walk . * February 14 — It ’s we two, it ’s we two, it ’s we two for aye, All the world and we two, and Heaven be our stay. Like a laverock in the lift, sing, O bonny bride*! All the world was Adam once, with Eve by his side. Mopsa the Fairy. February 15 : “ Ain’t a gentleman a man with good manners? Now a good-manner ’d man is allers saying by his ways and looks to them that air beneath him, ‘You’re as good as I am!’ and a bad-manner’d man is allers saying by his ways and looks to them that air above him, ‘I’m as good as you air ! ’ Now your real gentleman thinks most of them things that make men ekal, and t’ other chap thinks most of what makes them unekal.” Fated to be Free. 33 February 13 ST. VALENTINE. February 14 - - February 1 5 39 February 16 Do not put off till another day any good which it is in the power of your hand to do at once. Stories Told to a Child. February 1 7 Such as have not gold to bring Thee, They bring thanks — Thy grateful sons; Such as have no song to sing Thee, Live Thee praise — Thy silent ones. Poems. February 18 Divine Love came down to take on itself our sins, but there is no Saviour to do the like for our mis- takes. Sarah De Berenger . 40 February 1 6 February 17 February 18 — — — - February 19 “ It seems shocking to think that some people should be sent into this world to teach others forbear- ance, only by being useless or unaccommodating.” “ My dear,” she answered, “ far be it from me to say that the Almighty designed any of his creatures, for such a purpose ; I meant, that if we do not perform the good part that we all have it in our power to take upon us, God will make our evil subservient to the good of others. God will turn our very faults into blessings for our neighbors.” The Cumberers . February 20 — If we consider women whose lot it is to inspire deep affection, we shall sometimes find them, not those who can most generously bestow, but those who can most generously receive. Don John. february 2 1 — Do not despond because your means of doing good appear trifling and insignificant, for though one soweth and another reapeth, yet it is God that giveth the increase ; and who can tell whether he will not cause that which is sown to bear fruit an hundred fold, who can tell whether to have even a penny to give under certain circumstances may not be to have no copper — but a golden opportunity. Stories Told to a Child. 42 - February 19 - February 20 - February 2 1 43 February 22 — Though all great deeds were proved but fables fine, Though earth’s old story could be told anew, Though the swee£ fashions loved of them that sue Were empty as the ruined Delphian shrine — Though God did never man, in words benign, With sense of His great Fatherhood endue, Though life immortal were a dream untrue, — Though all these were not, — to the ungraced heir Would this remain, — to live as though they were. Poems. February 23 — Emily’s joyous and impassioned nature, though she lived safely, as it were, in the middle of her own sweet world — saw the best of it, made the best of it, and colored it all, earth and sky, with her tender hopefulness — was often conscious of something yet to come, ready and expectant of the rest of it. The rest of life, she meant ; the rest of sorrow, love, and feeling. Fated to he Free. February 24 Times when the troubles of the heart Are hushed — as winds were hushed that day — And budding hopes begin to start, Like those green hedgerows on our way : When all within and all around, Like hues on that sweet landscape blend, And Nature’s hand has made to sound The heartstrings that her touch attend. A Birthday Walk. 44 February 22 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. February 23 February 24 - ST. MATTHIAS. 45 Febnuiry 25 Work is its own best earthly meed, Else have we none more than the sea-born throng Who wrought those marvellous isles that bloom -afar. Work . February 26 There are some little women that are insignificant and nobody takes the least notice of them. They are not big enough to be handsome ; they are not witty nor clever, and so they get overlooked. Nobody falls in love with them, and nobody dislikes them. Off the Skelligs . February 27 — She comforts all her mother’s days, And with her sweet obedient ways She makes her labor light ; So sweet to hear, so fair to see ! O, she is much too good for me, That lovely Lettice White ! Supper at the Mill . 4