'Where you tend a rose'

“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle may not grow.”
 

       —  "Secret Garden", by Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett 

                         ****

Bright hopes and pure delights

Upon his course may beam, 

And there, amid the sternest heights,

The sweetest flowerets gleam.

On all her breezes borne,

Earth yields no scents like those;

But he who dares not grasp the thorn

Should never crave the rose.

      — "The Narrow Way" by Anne Bronte

by Jane Beharrell