If thou wilt shut thy drowsy eyes,

   My mulberry one, my golden sun!

The rose shall sing thee lullabies,

   My pretty cosset lambkin!

And thou shalt swing in an almond-tree,

With a flood of moonbeams rocking thee---...

Poet:

I thought myself, indeed, secure,

   So fast the door, so firm the lock;

But, lo! he toddling comes to lure

   My parent ear with timorous knock.


My heart were stone could it withstand

   The sweetness of my...

Poet:

I say, as one who never feared

   The wrath of a subscriber's bullet,

I pity him who has a beard

   But has no little girl to pull it!


When wife and I have finished tea,

   Our baby woos me with her prattle,...

Poet:

I count my treasures o'er with care,---

   The little toy my darling knew,

   A little sock of faded hue,

A little lock of golden hair.


Long years ago this holy time,

   My little one---my all to me---
...

Poet:

COBBLER


Stork, I am justly wroth,

   For thou hast wronged me sore;

The ash roof-tree that shelters thee

   Shall shelter thee no more!


STORK


Full fifty years I 've dwelt
...

Poet:

My harp is on the willow-tree,

Else would I sing, O love, to thee

   A song of long-ago---

Perchance the song that Miriam sung

Ere yet Judea's heart was wrung

   By centuries of woe.


I ate my crust...

Poet:

Your gran'ma, in her youth, was quite

   As blithe a little maid as you.

And, though her hair is snowy white,

   Her eyes still have their maiden blue,

And on her checks, as fair as thine,

   Methinks a girlish blush...

Poet: