Child Songs of Cheer | Page 3

them waving through the grass?Where the heroes sleep!?Thither gently let us pass?On this day we keep.
Let us bring our blossoms, too,?All our gardens grow;?Lilacs honey-sweet with dew,?And the lilies' snow.
Every posy of the May,?Every bloomy stem,?Every bud that breaks to-day?Gather now for them.
Lay the lilies o'er them thus,?Lovingly, for so?Down they laid their lives for us,?Long and long ago.
Heap above them bud and bough;?Softly, ere we cease,?God, we pray Thee, gently now?Fold them in Thy peace!
CHU-CHU CARS
Turn the chairs down in a row?Each behind the other, so;?_Chu-chu! Chu-chu!_ there they are,?Passenger and baggage-car,?_Chu-chu-chu!_ the Morris chair?Is the engine puffing there,?_Chu-chu! Chu-chu! Ting-a-ling!_?Don't you hear its big bell ring??All aboard! Jump on! if you?Want to take this train. _Chu-chu!!_?Off we start now, rushing fast?Through the fields and valleys, past?Noisy cities, over bridges,?Hills and plains and mountain ridges,?_Chu-chu! Chu-chu! Chu-chu-chu!!_?At such speed it must be true?Since we started we have come?Most a million miles from home!?Jump off, some one! Quick! and go?To the pantry, for, you know,?We must have the cookie-jar?For our Pullman dining-car!
FAIRY RINGS
Softly in the gloaming?Flitting through the vale,?Fairy folk are roaming?Over hill and dale.
Pixies in the hollow,?Elves upon the height,?Let us follow, follow?Through the paling light.
Follow, all unbidden,?To the grassy glade?Wrapped around and hidden?In the forest shade.
Hark the elfin tinkle?Of their little lutes!?Mark the golden twinkle?Of their fairy flutes!
[Illustration: FAIRY RINGS]
See them dancing, dancing,?While the silver moon?Tips their swiftly glancing?Little silver shoon!
Tripping, tripping lightly,?Where their footprints fall,?Look! the grass is brightly?Growing green and tall!
Springing close, unbroken,?In a fairy ring,?For to-morrow's token?Of their frolicking!
THE FIREFLY
Flash and flicker and fly away,?Trailing light as you flutter far,?Are you a lamp for the fairies, say??Or a flake of fire from a falling star?
A RAIN SONG
Tinkle, tinkle,
Lightly fall
On the peach buds, pink and small;?Tip the tiny grass, and twinkle?On the clover, green and tall.
Tinkle, tinkle,--
Faster now,
Little rain-drops, smite and sprinkle?Cherry-bloom and apple-bough!?Pelt the elms, and show them how
You can dash!
And splash! splash! splash!
While the thunder rolls and mutters,?And the lightnings flash and flash!
Then eddy into curls
Of a million misty swirls,
And thread the air with silver, and embroider it with pearls!
And patter, patter, patter?To a quicker time, and clatter?On the streaming window-pane;
Rain, rain,
On the leaves,
And the eaves,
And the turning weather-vane!
Rush in torrents from the tip?Of the gable-peak, and drip?In the garden-bed, and fill?All the cuckoo-cups, and pour
More and more?In the tulip-bowls, and still
Overspill?In a crystal tide until?Every yellow daffodil?Is flooded to its golden rim, and brimming o'er and o'er!
Then as gently as the low?Muffled whir of robin wings,?Or a sweep of silver strings,
Even so,?Take your airy April flight?Through the merry April light,?And melt into a mist of rainy music as you go!
FAIRIES
Grandfather says that sometimes,?When stars are twinkling and?A new moon shines, there come times?When folks see fairy-land!
So when there's next a new moon,?I mean to watch all night!?Grandfather says a blue moon?Is best for fairy light,
And in a peach-bloom, maybe,?If I look I shall see?A little fairy baby?No bigger than a bee!
THE LITTLE FIR-TREES
Hey! little evergreens,?Sturdy and strong!?Summer and autumn time?Hasten along;?Harvest the sunbeams, then,?Bind them in sheaves,?Range them, and change them?To tufts of green leaves.?Delve in the mellow mold,?Far, far below,
And so,?Little evergreens, grow!
Grow, grow!?Grow, little evergreens, grow!
Up, up so airily?To the blue sky,?Lift up your leafy tips?Stately and high;?Clasp tight your tiny cones,?Tawny and brown;?By and by, buffeting?Rains will pelt down;?By and by, bitterly?Chill winds will blow;
And so,?Little evergreens, grow!
Grow, grow!?Grow, little evergreens, grow!
Gather all uttermost?Beauty, because,--?Hark, till I tell it now!?How Santa Claus,?Out of the northern land,?Over the seas,?Soon shall come seeking you,?Evergreen trees!?Seek you with reindeer soon,?Over the snow;
And so,?Little evergreens, grow!
Grow, grow!?Grow, little evergreens, grow!
What if the maples flare?Flaunting and red,?You shall wear waxen white?Tapers instead!?What if now, otherwhere,?Birds are beguiled,?You shall yet nestle?The little Christ-child!?Ah! the strange splendor?The fir-trees shall know!
And so,?Little evergreens, grow!
Grow, grow!?Grow, little evergreens, grow!
THE WREN-HOUSE
Yesterday I took my