Child Songs of Cheer | Page 7

of old,?And if trailing in your wake?Sailing on the silver lake?Was a boat of magic and?You could float to fairy-land,?Then I'd jump in and begin?Traveling like Lohengrin!
BABY'S BAKING
So, so, spade and hoe,?Little pile of sand;?See it turning into dough?In the baby's hand!
Little pie with crimpy crust,?Set it in the sun;?Sugar it with powdered dust,?And bake it till it's done.
A SURE SIGN
When you see upon the walk?Circles newly made of chalk,?And around them all the day?Little boys in eager play?Rolling marbles, agates fine,?Banded, polished, red as wine,?Marbles crystal as the dew,?Each with rainbows twisted through,?Marbles gay in painted clay,?Flashing, twinkling in your way,?When the walk has blossomed so,?Surely every one must know?None need wonder who has heard?Robin, wren, or Peter-bird;?Sure the sign as song or wing,
It is spring!
ANOTHER SURE SIGN
When pink-cheeked on every hand?Little girls are seen to stand?Turning skipping ropes,--_swish-swash!_--?While their laughing playmates run?Jumping over,--oh, what fun!--?_Swish-swash! Swish-swash!_?Two and two now, see them dash!?_One, two, one, two,_?Round they scamper, safely through,?_Swish-swash!_ such merry skipping,?_One, two,_--some one is tripping!?Ah, she's out now and must pay?Turning rope while others play!?See the bobbing golden curls,?Little skirts in rhythmic swirls?Rising, falling, to the beat?Of the little skipping feet!?When these pretty sights appear,?It is surely very clear
April's here!
THE ROBIN'S BATH
A flash and flicker of dripping wings,?A wet red breast that glows?Bright as the newly opened bud?The first red poppy shows,?A sparkle of flying rainbow drops,?A glint of golden sun?On ruffled feathers, a snatch of song,?And the robin's bath is done.
THE FROSTED PANE
When I wakened, very early,?All my window-pane was pearly?With a sparkling little picture traced in lines of shining white;
Some magician with a gleaming?Frosty brush, while I was dreaming,?Must have come and by the starlight worked through all the quiet night.
He had painted frosty people,?And a frosty church and steeple,?And a frosty bridge and river tumbling over frosty rocks;
Frosty mountain peaks that glimmered,?And fine frosty ferns that shimmered,?And a frosty little pasture full of frosty little flocks.
It was all touched in so lightly?And it glittered, oh, so whitely,?That I gazed and gazed in wonder at the lovely painted pane;
Then the sun rose high and higher?With his wand of golden fire?Till, alas, my picture vanished and I looked for it in vain!
THE FIRST SNOW
The snow! the snow! Whoop! Hooray! Ho! Ho!?Plunge in the deep drifts and toss it up so!?Rollick and roll in the feathery fleece?Plucked out of the breasts of the marvelous geese?By the little old woman who lives in the sky;?Have ever you seen her? No, neither have I!
GRANDFATHER KNOWS
Grandfather says of all things?The silliest he's heard?Is that some children call things?They've never seen, "absurd!"?And have their doubts of true things,?And won't believe, because?They say, "If you but knew things,?There _is_ no Santa Claus!"
Grandfather says he _knows_ him,?And sees him every year,?And Santa often shows him?The playthings he brings here;?He says, too, Santa told him?If any girls and boys?Laugh at and won't uphold him,?They'll not get any toys!
SLEIGH-BELLS
Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle!?Happy winter-time!?Baby's eyes a-twinkle,?Hear the sleigh-bells chime!
Each one rings a merry?Ting-a-ling-a-ling!?For a sleigh-bell fairy?Hides inside to sing.
See them quake and quiver,?Up and downward tossed,?Seems as if they shiver?In the nipping frost!
Shiver into laughter,?Jolly little elves!?Till we laugh thereafter,?Merry as themselves!
THE RED-BIRD
Swept lightly by the south wind?The elm-leaves softly stirred,?And in their pale green clusters?There straightway bloomed a bird!
His glossy feathers glistened?With dyes as richly red?As any tulip flaming?From out the garden bed.
But ah, unlike the tulips,?In joyous strain, ere long,?This red-bird flower unfolded?A heart of golden song!
WILD BEASTS
I will be a lion?And you shall be a bear,?And each of us will have a den?Beneath a nursery chair;?And you must growl and growl and growl,?And I will roar and roar,?And then--why, then--you'll growl again,?And I will roar some more!
WHEREFORE WINGS?
Heigho, sparrow! Reckless of the rain;?When chill the cheerless wind grows,?Chirping might and main!?Is it naught, then, when the rose
Blows again?
Beating, sleeting on your draggled coat!?Surely, 'tis enough to drown?Any happy note?Nestling in that downy brown
Little throat.
Ah me, sparrow! Had I but your power,?Think you in the freezing sleet?I would waste an hour??--I'd sing my sweetest to a sweet
Orange flower!
BASKING
Frosty winter chased away?By the blessed sun,?Down upon the garden walks?Basking has begun.
Oh, the happy, happy heat!?How the pulses stir,?How it warms the hearts beneath?Little coats of fur!
Oh, the happy pussy-cats!?Days to doze and doze,?And what pleasant dreams they dream?Only pussy knows.
WITH A MAY-BASKET FOR BABY AGNES
Peach-buds to meet thee,
Robins to greet thee,
Hey, little Sweetheart! and May morning, hey!
Sunbeam and sing time,
Bluebird and wing time,
This time is kiss