The King, upon his rose-bud throne, The elves have ceased their sportive play, The Fairies in their fragile boat,— Further and further from the shore, W. H. Davenport Adams. A New Fern A Fairy has found a new fern! A lovely surprise of the May! She stamps her wee foot, looks uncommonly stern, And keeps other fairies at bay. She watches it flourish and grow What exquisite pleasure is hers! She kisses it, strokes it and fondles it so I almost believe that she purrs ! Of all the most beautiful things, To be a young fairy, with glittering wings, “A.” The Child and the Fairies The woods are full of fairies! The trees are all alive: prance and peep, I'd like to tame a fairy, To keep it on a shelf, To see it wash its little face, I'd teach it pretty manners, It always should say " Please;" And then you know I'd make it sew, And curtsey with its knees! 66 The Little Elf I met a little Elf-man, once, Down where the lilies blow. He slightly frowned, and with his eye 66 'As you are big for you." John Kendrick Bangs. "One, Two, Three"* It was an old, old, old, old lady And a boy that was half-past three, She couldn't go romping and jumping, For he was a thin little fellow, They sat in the yellow sunlight, And the game that they played I'll tell you, Just as it was told to me. *From "The Poems of H. C. Bunner." Copyright, 1889, by Charles Scribner's Sons. It was Hide-and-Go-Seek they were playing. Though you'd never have known it to beWith an old, old, old, old lady And a boy with a twisted knee. The boy would bend his face down "You are in the china closet!" He would cry and laugh with gleeIt wasn't the china closet, But he still had Two and Three. "You are up in papa's big bedroom, "It can't be the little cupboard Where mamma's things used to be— So it must be in the clothes press, Gran'ma," And he found her with his Three. Then she covered her face with her fingers, That were wrinkled and white and wee, And she guessed where the boy was hiding, With a One and a Two and a Three. And they never had stirred from their places Right under the maple tree This old, old, old, old lady And the boy with the lame little knee This dear, dear, dear old lady And the boy who was half-past three. Henry C. Bunner. What May Happen to a Thimble Come about the meadow, Can you tell where? Fan saw it fall, Ned isn't sure That she dropp'd it at all. Has a mouse carried it Down to her hole- Shady, small soul? Ere the light fails, |