Under the Tree | Page 3

place.
When Dr. Brown is reading hymns
To make the people want to sing,

Or when he preaches loud and makes
The shivery bells begin to
ring,
I watch the little pulpit house--
It isn't very tall or wide--
And then I
wonder all about
The little ones that live inside.
When Dr. Brown has preached enough,
And when he is about to stop,

He stands behind the little house
And shuts the Bible on the top.
I wonder if _they_ sit inside,
And if _they_ cook and walk up stairs.

I wonder if _they_ have a cat
And say some kind of little prayers.
I wonder if _they're_ ever scared
Because the bedroom lamp goes out,

And what their little dreams are like
And what _they_ wonder all
about.
ON THE HILL
Mother said that we could go
Up on the hill where the strawberries
grow.
And while I was there I looked all down,
Over the trees and over the
town.
I saw the field where the big boys play,
And the roads that come from

every way,
The courthouse place where the wagons stop,
And the bridge and the
scales and the blacksmith shop.
The church steeple looked very tall and thin,
And I found the house
that we live in.
I saw it under the poplar tree,
And I bent my head and tried to see
Our house when the rain is over it,
And how it looks when the lamps
are lit.
I saw the swing from up on the hill,
The ropes were hanging very
still.
And over and over I tried to see
Some of us walking under the tree,
And the children playing everywhere,
And how it looks when I am
there.
But Dickie said, "Come on, let's race";
And Will had found the
strawberry place.
AUTUMN
Dick and Will and Charles and I
Were playing it was election day,

And I was running for president,
And Dick was a band that was going
to play,
And Charles and Will were a street parade,
But Clarence came and
said that he
Was going to run for president,
And I could run for
school-trustee.
He made some flags for Charles and Will
And a badge to go on
Dickie's coat.
He stood some cornstalks by the fence
And had them
for the men that vote.

Then he climbed on a box and made a speech
To the cornstalk men
that were in a row.
It was all about the dem-o-crats,
And "I de-fy
any man to show."
And "I de-fy any man to say."
And all about "It's a big disgrace."

He spoke his speech out very loud
And shook his fist in a cornstalk's
face.
THE RABBIT
When they said the time to hide was mine,
I hid back under a thick
grape vine.
And while I was still for the time to pass,
A little gray thing came out
of the grass.
He hopped his way through the melon bed
And sat down close by a
cabbage head.
He sat down close where I could see,
And his big still eyes looked
hard at me,
His big eyes bursting out of the rim,
And I looked back very hard at
him.
CRESCENT MOON
And Dick said, "Look what I have found!"
And when we saw we
danced around,
And made our feet just tip the ground.
We skipped our toes and sang, "Oh-lo.
Oh-who, oh-who, oh what do
you know!
Oh-who, oh-hi, oh-loo, kee-lo!"
We clapped our hands and sang, "Oh-ee!"
It made us jump and laugh
to see
The little new moon above the tree.
FATHER'S STORY

We put more coal on the big red fire,
And while we are waiting for
dinner to cook,
Our father comes and tells us about
A story that he
has read in a book.
And Charles and Will and Dick and I
And all of us but Clarence are
there.
And some of us sit on Father's legs,
But one has to sit on the
little red chair.
And when we are sitting very still,
He sings us a song or tells a piece;

He sings Dan Tucker Went to Town,
Or he tells us about the
golden fleece.
He tells about the golden wool,
And some of it is about a boy

Named Jason, and about a ship,
And some is about a town called
Troy.
And while he is telling or singing it through,
I stand by his arm, for
that is my place.
And I push my fingers into his skin
To make little
dents in his big rough face.
CHRISTMAS MORNING
If Bethlehem were here today,
Or this were very long ago,
There
wouldn't be a winter time
Nor any cold or snow.
I'd run out through the garden gate,
And down along the pasture walk;

And off beside the cattle barns
I'd hear a kind of gentle talk.
I'd move the heavy iron chain
And pull away the wooden pin;
I'd
push the door a little bit
And tiptoe very softly in.
The pigeons and the yellow hens
And all the cows would stand away;

Their eyes would open wide to see
A lady in the manger hay,
If this were very long ago
And Bethlehem were here today.

And Mother held