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80
Läsebok. N:o 77 — 78.
The butterfly is glancing bright
Across the sunbeam’s track;
I care not now to chase its flight —
Oh! call my brother back!
The flowers run wild — the flowers we sowed
Around our garden tree;
Our vine is drooping with its load —
Oh! call him back to me!»
»He would not hear my voice, fair child!
He may not come to thee;
The face that once like spring-time smiled,
On earth no more thou’lt see.
The rose’s brief, bright life of joy,
Such unto him was given;
Go, thou must play alone, my boy!
Thy brother is in Heaven !» —
»And has he left his birds and flowers ?
And must I call in vain?
And through the long, long summer hours,
o o" p
Will he not come again ?
o
And by the brook and in the glade,
Are all our wanderings o’er?
Oh! while my brother with me played,
Would 1 had loved him more!»
Felicia He mans.
83. No rank or possession can make the guilty
mind happy.
Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, was far from being happy,
though he possessed great riches, and all the pleasures which
wealth and power could procure. Damocles, one of his
flatterers, deceived by the specious appearances of happiness,
took occasion to compliment him on the extent of his power,
his treasures, and royal magnificence; and he declared that
no monarch had ever been greater and happier than
Dionysius. »Hast thou a mind, Damocles», said the king, »to taste
this happiness? and to know by experience, what the
enjoyments are, of which thou hast so high an idea?» Damocles,
with joy, accepted the offer. The king ordered that a royal
banquet should be prepared, and a gilded sofa, covered with
rich embroidery, placed for his favourite. Side-boards, loaded
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