A Childs Garden of Verses | Page 9

my face, and blows?Its frosty pepper up my nose.
Black are my steps on silver sod;?Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;?And tree and house, and hill and lake,?Are frosted like a wedding cake.
XXXIX
The Hayloft

Through all the pleasant meadow-side
The grass grew shoulder-high,?Till the shining scythes went far and wide
And cut it down to dry.
Those green and sweetly smelling crops
They led in waggons home;?And they piled them here in mountain tops
For mountaineers to roam.
Here is Mount Clear, Mount Rusty-Nail,
Mount Eagle and Mount High;--?The mice that in these mountains dwell,
No happier are than I!
Oh, what a joy to clamber there,
Oh, what a place for play,?With the sweet, the dim, the dusty air,
The happy hills of hay!
XL
Farewell to the Farm

The coach is at the door at last;?The eager children, mounting fast?And kissing hands, in chorus sing:?Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!
To house and garden, field and lawn,?The meadow-gates we swang upon,?To pump and stable, tree and swing,?Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!
And fare you well for evermore,?O ladder at the hayloft door,?O hayloft where the cobwebs cling,?Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!
Crack goes the whip, and off we go;?The trees and houses smaller grow;?Last, round the woody turn we sing:?Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!
XLI
North-West Passage

1. Good-Night

When the bright lamp is carried in,?The sunless hours again begin;?O'er all without, in field and lane,?The haunted night returns again.
Now we behold the embers flee?About the firelit hearth; and see?Our faces painted as we pass,?Like pictures, on the window glass.
Must we to bed indeed? Well then,?Let us arise and go like men,?And face with an undaunted tread?The long black passage up to bed.
Farewell, O brother, sister, sire!?O pleasant party round the fire!?The songs you sing, the tales you tell,?Till far to-morrow, fare you well!
2. Shadow March
All around the house is the jet-black night;
It stares through the window-pane;?It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light,
And it moves with the moving flame.
Now my little heart goes a beating like a drum,
With the breath of the Bogies in my hair;?And all around the candle the crooked shadows come,
And go marching along up the stair.
The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp,
The shadow of the child that goes to bed--?All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp,
With the black night overhead.
3. In Port
Last, to the chamber where I lie?My fearful footsteps patter nigh,?And come out from the cold and gloom?Into my warm and cheerful room.
There, safe arrived, we turn about?To keep the coming shadows out,?And close the happy door at last?On all the perils that we past.
Then, when mamma goes by to bed,?She shall come in with tip-toe tread,?And see me lying warm and fast?And in the land of Nod at last.
THE CHILD ALONE
I
The Unseen Playmate

When children are playing