In the days of old

Cowslip.
The sign of sovereignty was gold.
And still, as little birds do sing,
The sovereign is a golden thing;
And I am golden. How I shine!
Besides, I make a famous wine.
And I have known occasions when
My potent wine has conquered men.
You call me Cowslip-vulgar name !
Yet even that augments my fame,
Who furnish cows with wholesome food,
And make the butter sweet and good.
All. But, Cowslip, it was said of old,
"All things that glitter are not gold!"
Christmas. Come, Violet, your turn is next;
I can't guess what will be your text.
Violet. I am a lowly flower, and yet
'Twere well you chose the Violet;
For I beyond the rest inherit
The virtue rare of modest merit.
Unseen I sit, and yet no flower

Sheds so much fragrance round her bower;
Thus should a Queen, unseen to man,

Do all the quiet good she can.

All. If you're too little to be seen,

You're far too short to be a Queen.
Christmas. Sunflower, you're last.
Sunflower. Last, but not least, I must prevail
As soon as I have told my tale.

I grow as tall as many trees,

I scarcely bend before the breeze;

Some here can hardly reach my knees.

Poor little, foolish, stuck-up things,

Dwarfs, thumbkins, pygmies, underlings!

Nay, hear me out! As all men know,
The sun is King of Flowers below;
If he shone not, you could not shine,
Or waft abroad your odors fine.
It needs no further arguing

To prove that he is lawful king!
Then I, good dames, his ancient flame
His wedded wife, who bear his name,
And turn to him with instinct true—
I claim to be the Queen for you.

All. No; Sunflower, it is plainly seen
You are too flaunting to be Queen.

Christmas. You've spoken well, as I expected. And now you wonder who's elected.

Eight arguments have made it plain

That eight sweet flowers deserve to reign.

But even in a garden-bed

There must be foot, if there is head;

Therefore I won't, however pressed,

Place any one above the rest.
But each a golden crown may win
By ruling well herself within.
Thus I decide, and here decree
A Flower Republic-Liberty-
Sisterhood, and united flowers,

With loving hearts and varying powers!
From this same hour the edict dates.
And now, like the United States,
Together live in love and peace,
Flourish, bud, blossom, and increase,
But first a fadeless chaplet twine
To grace this festival of mine.
And let us all a carol sing,

And make the lofty roof-tree ring!

1. THE Sahara is a country of immense extent which occupies the central parts of Northern Africa. It may be likened to a vast ocean separating the negro kingdoms of equatorial Africa from the more civilized states of the north, and the numerous oases with which it is studded are like so many islands or archipelagoes of islands in the midst of the desert waste. This waste, however, though destitute of everything helpful to human life and comfort, does not always consist of barren sands. There is a vast extent of dry, stunted herbage on which the camel can pasture, and thus a passage across the desert is rendered practicable by routes which could not be traversed were the Sahara what it is often represented as being-one wide, sandy plain.

2. In the desert a route through the sand is

always chosen in preference to any other, because in the sandy tracts the springs are most likely to be found, and because the sand presents a soft, dry bed on which the traveller can repose after the fatigues of the day. It is this preference of the natives which has led Europeans to suppose that the whole of the Sahara is a sandy waste. The character of the desert is very much the reverse of this, there being hundreds of miles of hard, firm soil, and hundreds more a mixture of stony fragments and pebbles.

3. Travelling on sand, there is of course no visible road, as the fierce winds that frequently recur soon obliterate all trace of footsteps. The guides, therefore, find their way by landmarks, which they carefully renew when necessary. These are often the most trifling objects, such as a tuft of herbage, a single plant, or the summit of a swell in the soil. In places where the plain is one void and arid flat even such objects are wanting, and their place is supplied by heaps of stones or cairns piled at great distances. Sometimes the route will extend for ten or twelve days over a plain affording not a single drop of moisture.

4. Along nearly the whole length of the northern shores of the continent there extends a fertile belt of land, called by the natives the Tell, the cultivation of which yields the means of life to the populations of the coast. In the neighborhood of this fertile belt there are numerous oases extending into the interior, while others, fortunately for the purposes of commerce and civilization, exist within practicable distances across the whole desert.

5. Farther eastward, near the limits of the Sahara,

a line of oases extends from its northern to its southern boundary. Of these, the Great Oasis of Thebes is a hundred and twenty miles in length. The oases invariably lie in the lowest levels of the soil, and doubtless owe their existence to the moisture which naturally gravitates toward such positions. Most of these isolated spots, even though hundreds of miles apart, enjoy a constant supply of water, and are favorable to the cultivation of the date-palm and other fruit-trees, as well as of various kinds of vegetables.

6. The date-palm supplies a large proportion of the food of the dwellers in the desert. The tree is thirty-three years in coming to maturity, after which it will bear fruit for seventy years more, the annual crop of each tree averaging from three to four hundred pounds weight. Not only man, but all the animals of the desert, can feed on the date. The fruit is easily preserved by packing it closely in wooden bags; and when thus compressed into solid masses, it will keep for several years. Sometimes a tree is tapped for the sake of its sap, which is much relished as a beverage, and when allowed to ferment forms a drink resembling cider. A single tree will yield fourteen or fifteen quarts a day for two years, but will die if the drain be continued longer. Every part of the date-palm is turned to profitable account. The wood is used for building and every species of carpenter-work, the fibre is twisted into ropes, baskets are made of the branches, and sheep are fattened with the pounded stones of the fruit.

7. The population of the desert is necessarily scanty in comparison with its enormous area. It