Child Songs of Cheer | Page 6

and wagon smashed!
Dear me! Dear me!?When a runaway we see,?Children, too, must run, oh, fast!?Run and hide as it goes past!
LOST!
"Peep! Peep! Peep!" Poor little chick!?Little cry so weak and small,?Meadow grass so tall and thick,?And the clover tufts so tall!
Little heart in sore distress,?Longing for the mother wing;?Through the weedy wilderness?Searching for its sheltering!
THE QUEEN'S PAGE
Once I was a little page?To a May-day queen,?And I wore a little coat?Made of Lincoln green.
Oh, the queen was beautiful!?And she had a bright?Crown of golden cuckoo-buds?And violets blue and white.
On the step beside her throne?I sat very still,?Ready, as a page should be,?To obey her will.
And before us little girls,?Each with garlands gay,?Round a May-pole danced and sang?Almost all the day.
OUR TREE-TOAD
Grandfather says the tree-toad,?That to our yard has come,?Is just a little wee toad?No bigger than his thumb!
And that his coat's so queer it?Can turn from green to blue!?Whatever color's near it,?Why, that's its color, too!
And then Grandfather snickers?And says, "Would you suppose?He climbs with little stickers?On all his little toes?
"And don't you wish your toes now?Were fixed like his? For, see,?Right up the elm he goes now?And sticks tight to the tree!"
"But then," he says, "O dear me!?If all the little boys?Could _screech_ as loud, I fear me?There'd be a dreadful noise!"
IN THE WATER-WORLD
Down among the water-weeds,?Darting through the grass,?Round about the tasseled reeds,?See the minnows pass!?See the little turtles there,?Hiding, half asleep,?Tucked in tangled mosses where?Tiny crayfish creep!
Watch the trailing grasses string?Strands of purple shells?That the lazy ripples ring,?Sweet as silver bells;?Watch the sunshine sift and drift?Down the eddy whirls,?Whence the laden whiteweeds lift?Loads of blossom pearls;
While the limpid shadows slip?Softly in between,?And the pussy-willows dip?Lightly in the green?Of the mocking trees that grow?Down the water-sky,?Flecked with fleecy clouds that blow?Where the reed-birds fly.
Oh, such marvels manifold?Fill the summer stream,?Such enticing things untold?Through the ripples gleam,?If you could a moment turn?Into what you wish,?Would it not be fun to be?Yonder little fish?
WHO WAS IT?
Of course I've heard the moon's green cheese,?But will somebody tell me, please,?Who was it took so big a bite?There's scarcely any left to-night?
VISITING DAY
I'll wear the striped skirt that trails,?And you the flowered one,?And we will take our parasols?And walk out in the sun.
We'll leave our dolly-carts at home,?For ladies, when they call,?Must not have children with them, no,?That would not do at all.
And I'll be "Mrs. Wilkinson,"?And you'll be "Mrs. Brown,"?And we will call and call and call?On every one in town!
A VALENTINE TO CATHERINE
If you will be my True-Love,?I'll tell you what I'll do,?I'll ask a little bluebird?To sing a song to you.
When first you see a violet?And softly pricking through?The garden-bed come crocuses?And golden tulips, too,
Then watch! for he'll be coming,?The little bird of blue;?He'll sing, "I love you, Sweetheart,?It's true, true, true!"
FIREFLIES
Look! Look down in the garden how?The firefly lights are flitting now!?A million tiny sparks I know?Flash through the pinks and golden-glow,?And I am very sure that all?Have come to light a fairy ball,?And if I could stay up I'd see?How gay the fairy folks can be!
THE RAINY DAY
Let's sail all day, away, away?To the splendid Spanish Main?And the sultry seas of the Caribbees?And skies that never rain!
As pirates bold with bags of gold?And cutlasses and things,?We'll pack doubloons and silver spoons?In chests with iron rings.
And these we'll carry and secretly bury?In cannibal isles afar;?Like Captain Kidd, when they're safely hid?We won't tell where they are.
Let's sail all day, away, away?To the splendid Spanish Main?And the sultry seas of the Caribbees?--But at night sail home again!
THE FIRST RED-BIRD
I heard a song at daybreak,?So honey-sweet and clear,?The essence of all joyous things?Seemed mingling in its cheer.
The frosty world about me?I searched with eager gaze,?But all was slumber-bound and wrapped?In violet-tinted haze.
Then suddenly a sunbeam?Shot slanting o'er the hill,?And once again from out the sky?I heard that honied trill.
And there upon a poplar,?Poised at its topmost height,?I saw a little singer clad?In scarlet plumage bright.
The poplar branches quivered,?By dawn winds lightly blown,?And like a breeze-swept poppy-flower?The red-bird rocked and shone.
The blue sky, and his feathers?Flashed o'er by golden light,?Oh, all my heart with rapture thrilled,?It was so sweet a sight!
THE WEATHER-VANE
Turn, turn, when pelting rain?Rushes down the window-pane;?Turn, turn, and turn again?When the sun shines, weather-vane!
Fie! Fie! to always be?Emblem of uncertainty!?Followed by the restless sea,?Changeful moons may wax and wane,?Yet the moons and sea-tides, too,?Constant are compared to you!?Fickle still you must remain?Long as winds blow, weather-vane!
THE SWAN
Stately swan, so proud and white?Glistening in the morning light,?Come and tell me is it true?That a snow-white swan like you,?Guided by bright golden chains?In his beak for bridle reins,?Once upon a time from far?Fabled lands where fairies are?Brought a magic boat wherein?Rode the brave knight Lohengrin?
Stately swan, so proud and white?Glistening in the morning light,?If you only wore a gold?Harness, like that swan