My little neighbor’s table ’s set,
And slyly he comes down the tree,
His feet firm in each tiny fret
The bark has fashioned cunningly.
He pauses on a favorite knot;
Beneath the oak his feast is spread;
He asks no friend to share his lot,
Or dine with him on acorn bread.
He keeps his whiskers trim and neat,
...
What fragrant-footed comer
Is stepping o’er my head?
Behold, my queen! the Summer!
Who deems her warriors dead.
Now rise, ye knights of many fights,
From out your sleep profound!
Make sharp your spears, my gallant peers,
And prick the frozen ground.
Before the White Host harm her,
We ’ll hurry to her aid;...
A simple-hearted child was He,
And He was nothing more;
In summer days, like you and me,
He played about the door,
Or gathered, where the father toiled.
The shavings from the floor.
Sometimes He lay upon the grass,
The same as you and I,
And saw the hawks above Him pass
Like specks against the sky;
Or,...
I ’s a little Alabama Coon,
And I has n’t been born very long;
I ’member seein’ a great big round moon;
I ’member hearin’ one sweet song.
When dey tote me down to de cotton field,
Dar I roll and I tumble in de sun;
While my daddy pick de cotton, mammy watch me grow,
And dis am de song she sung:
Go to sleep, my little...
I passed by a garden, a little Dutch garden,
Where useful and pretty things grew,—
Heart’s-ease and tomatoes, and pinks and potatoes,
And lilies and onions and rue.
I saw in that garden, that little Dutch garden,
A chubby Dutch man with a spade,
And a rosy Dutch frau with a shoe like a scow,
And a flaxen haired little Dutch maid...
I met a little Elf-man, once,
Down where the lilies blow.
I asked him why he was so small
And why he didn’t grow.
He slightly frowned, and with his eye
He looked me through and through.
“I ’m quite as big for me,” said he,
“As you are big for you,”
I Made the cross myself whose weight
Was later laid on me.
This thought is torture as I toil
Up life’s steep Calvary.
To think mine own hands drove the nails!
I sang a merry song,
And chose the heaviest wood I had
To build it firm and strong.
If I had guessed—if I had dreamed
Its weight was meant for me,...
“yer know me little nipper,”
Said ’Energy ’Awkins, M. P.
“Well, ’e ’s a little champion,
An’ tikes on arfter me.
Larst Sunday me an’ the missus
Went out fer a little walk—
I should say the nipper took us,
Yer should o’ ’eard ’im tork!
“We went along through Tyburn,
An’ then by ’Endon way,
W’ere I ust ter do me...
Ye white Sicilian goats, who wander all
About the slopes of this wild mountain pass,
Take heed your horny footsteps do not fall
Upon the baby dreamer in the grass.
Let him lie there, half waking, and rejoice
In the safe shelter of his resting-place,
In hearing of his shepherd father’s voice,
In reach of fruity clusters o’er his...
Two little feet, so small that both may nestle
In one caressing hand,—
Two tender feet upon the untried border
Of life’s mysterious land.
Dimpled, and soft, and pink as peach-tree blossoms,
In April’s fragrant days,
How can they walk among the briery tangles,
Edging the world’s rough ways?
