w!_

With a hey! and a hi! and a hey-ho vow!
Then he sips her face
At the sweetest place--
And ho! how white is the hawthorn now!--
So rare!--
And the daisied world rocks round them there.
So rare! so rare!
_With a hey! and a hi! and a ho!_
_The grasses curdle where the daisies blow!_

* * * * *

[Illustration: "WHILE KATE PICKS BY, YET LOOKS NOT THERE."]

* * * * *

II

TO THE CHILD JULIA

[R.H.]

Little Julia, since that we
May not as our elders be,
Let us blithely fill the days
Of our youth with pleasant plays.
First we'll up at earliest dawn,
While as yet the dew is on
The sooth'd grasses and the pied
Blossomings of morningtide;
Next, with rinsed cheeks that shine
As the enamell'd eglantine,
We will break our fast on bread
With both cream and honey spread;
Then, with many a challenge-call,
We will romp from house and hall,
Gypsying with the birds and bees
Of the green-tress'd garden trees.
In a bower of leaf and vine
Thou shalt be a lady fine
Held in duress by the great
Giant I shall personate.
Next, when many mimics more
Like to these we have played o'er,

[Illustration]

We'll betake us home-along
Hand in hand at evensong.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

III

THE DOLLY'S MOTHER

[W.W.]

A little maid, of summers four--
Did you compute her years,--
And yet how infinitely more
To me her age appears:

I mark the sweet child's serious air,
At her unplayful play,--
The tiny doll she mothers there
And lulls to sleep away,

Grows--'neath the grave similitude--
An infant real, to me,
And _she_ a saint of motherhood
In hale maturity.

[Illustration]

So, pausing in my lonely round,
And all unseen of her,
I stand uncovered--her profound
And abject worshipper.

* * * * *

[Illustration: "LEND ME THE BREATH OF A FRESHENING GALE."]

* * * * *

IV

WIND OF THE SEA

[A.T.]

Wind of the Sea, come fill my sail--
Lend me the breath of a freshening gale
And bear my port-worn ship away!
For O the greed of the tedious town--
The shutters up and the shutters down!
Wind of the Sea, sweep over the bay
And bear me away!--away!

Whither you bear me, W