Once Upon a Time and Other Child-Verses

Robins and violets come again."

THE DANDELION-ORACLE

SHE, a little serious lassie still believing all
she sees,
Now consults a dandelion as an Oracle of
Greece:
"Dandelion, tell me true! is my mother
wanting me? " —
Blowing, every feathered seedlet floats out
like a boat to sea —
"I must go now; mother wants me." Rude-
ness of this latter day!
She has gayly trotted home, and – flung the
oracle away.

THE CHRISTMAS THRUSH

I WILL sing for you, dearie, a song that I
know
Of a ruby-eyed thrush, of a silver-tailed
thrush,
Who sat on a spray of a dry willow-bush,
And sang to a queen in a palace of snow.
The thrush's wing-feathers were jewel and
blue,
And he spread them alway on a Christmas
Day,
When he sang to the queen on his willow
spray —
O dearie, the honey-sweet song he knew!
At her palace window the queen would stay
So pinky and fair with her curly gold hair;
She merrily rocked in a crystal chair,
And never a queen was half so gay.

You want the queen in her palace of snow,
And the ruby-eyed thrush, the silver-tailed
thrush,
Who sat on a spray of a dry willow-bush?
Why, dearie, it's only a song, you know!

BUTTERCUP TALK

I'LL hold the buttercup under your chin
so, you fair little baby-o!
Ah, you will love butter, day out and in, for
there's a gold light on your dimple-o:
And you shall have butter so good and sweet.
Ho! Silverhorn, feed on the clover and
grass,
For the buttercup says my love will love but-
ter, and the buttercup's saying will come
to pass!

WEE WILLIE WINKIE

HO, Willie Winkie, and hey, Willie
Winkie!
Now through the window there floats,
All laden with cargoes of beautiful dreams,
A fleet of poppy-boats.

"The stars, they are swimming like golden
swans,
And the moon, she has climbed the steep,
And now through her silver ocean rides
A thousand fathoms deep.

"Like an arrow of light down the milky way,
Straight over the moonlit sea,
With its crimson sails puffed out with wind,
The fleet it sails to thee.

"And the child whom his mother has kissed
good-night,
And the soonest shall fall asleep,
The loveliest dream in the poppy-boats
Will get for his own to keep.
"But ho, Willie Winkie; and hey, Willie
Winkie!
The child that will keep awake,
The worst and the ugliest dream in the fleet
Is the dream he will have to take.
"Rose-leaves round the window, they rustle
so soft;
All things that are little and sweet —
The rose-bud babies and all the flowers —
They wait for the poppy fleet.
"Grass waves o'er the sparrow asleep in her
nest;
The robins are sleeping all;
And the echoes have died from the clouds
away
Of the skylark's silver call.
"White doves are asleep in the tall bell-tower;
The sky-lark sleeps in his nest;
And the baby-prince has gone to sleep
Up on the fair Queen's breast.