Volume I Part 52 (2/2)
She that pinches country wenches If they rub not clean their benches, And with sharper nails remembers When they rake not up their embers: But if so they chance to feast her, In a shoe she drops a tester.
This is she that empties cradles, Takes out children, puts in ladles: Trains forth old wives in their slumber With a sieve the holes to number; And then leads them from her burrows, Home through ponds and water-furrows.
She can start our Franklins' daughters, In their sleep, with shrieks and laughters: And on sweet Saint Anna's night Feed them with a promised sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers.
Ben Jonson [1573?-1637]
THE ELF AND THE DORMOUSE
Under a toadstool crept a wee Elf, Out of the rain, to shelter himself.
Under the toadstool sound asleep, Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.
Trembled the wee Elf, frightened, and yet Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.
To the next shelter--maybe a mile!
Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile,
Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.
Holding it over him, gayly he flew.
Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse--”Good gracious me!
”Where is my toadstool?” loud he lamented.
--And that's how umbrellas first were invented.
Oliver Herford [1863-1935]
”OH! WHERE DO FAIRIES HIDE THEIR HEADS?”
Oh! where do fairies hide their heads, When snow lies on the hills, When frost has spoiled their mossy beds, And crystallized their rills?
Beneath the moon they cannot trip In circles o'er the plain; And draughts of dew they cannot sip, Till green leaves come again.
Perhaps, in small, blue diving-bells They plunge beneath the waves, Inhabiting the wreathed sh.e.l.ls That lie in coral caves.
Perhaps, in red Vesuvius Carousals they maintain; And cheer their little spirits thus, Till green leaves come again.
When they return, there will be mirth And music in the air.
And fairy wings upon the earth, And mischief everywhere.
The maids, to keep the elves aloof, Will bar the doors in vain; No key-hole will he fairy-proof When green leaves come again.
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