And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's,
The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade,
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade:
The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise,
And the colors have all passed away from her eyes!
William Wordsworth

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR

Between the dark and the daylight,

When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,

The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:

Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret

O'er the arms and back of my chair; If I try to escape, they surround me; They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,

Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,

And moulder in dust away!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

MY RECOLLECTEST THOUGHTS

My recollectest thoughts are those
Which I remember yet;

And bearing on, as you'd suppose,
The things I don't forget.

But my resemblest thoughts are less.
Alike than they should be;

A state of things, as you'll confess,
You very seldom see.

And yet the mostest thought I love
Is what no one believes-

That I'm the sole survivor of

The famous Forty Thieves!

Charles Edward Carryl

JUST NONSENSE

MR. FINNEY'S TURNIP

Mr. Finney had a turnip

And it grew behind the barn; -
And it grew and it grew,

And that turnip did no harm.

There it grew and it grew

Till it could grow no longer;
Then his daughter Lizzie picked it
And put it in the cellar.

There it lay and it lay

Till it began to rot;

And his daughter Susie took it

And put it in the pot.

And they boiled it and boiled it
As long as they were able;
And then his daughters took it
And put it on the table.

Mr. Finney and his wife

They sat them down to sup;

And they ate and they ate

And they ate that turnip up.

THERE WAS A MONKEY

There was a monkey climbed up a tree, When he fell down, then down fell he.