The Spring Beauties

The Puritan Spring Beauties stood freshly clad for church; A Thrush, white-breasted, o'er them sat singing on his perch. 'Happy be! for fair are ye!' the gentle singer told them, But presently a buff-coat Bee came booming up to scold them. 'Vanity, oh, vanity! Young maids, beware of vanity!' Grumbled out the buff-coat Bee, Half parson-like, half soldierly. The sweet-faced maidens trembled, with pretty, pinky blushes, Convinced that it was wicked to listen to the Thrushes; And when, that shady afternoon, I chanced that way to pass, They hung their little bonnets down and looked into the grass. All because the buff-coat Bee Lectured them so solemnly:- 'Vanity, oh, vanity! Young maids, beware of vanity!'