LITMIR.BIZ

       GOBLIN MARKET.

      Morning and evening

      Maids heard the goblins cry:

      "Come buy our orchard fruits,

      Come buy, come buy:

      Apples and quinces,

      Lemons and oranges,

      Plump unpecked cherries,

      Melons and raspberries,

      Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,

      Swart-headed mulberries,

      Wild free-born cranberries,

      Crab-apples, dewberries,

      Pine-apples, blackberries,

      Apricots, strawberries;--

      All ripe together

      In summer weather,--

      Morns that pass by,

      Fair eves that fly;

      Come buy, come buy:

      Our grapes fresh from the vine,

      Pomegranates full and fine,

      Dates and sharp bullaces,

      Rare pears and greengages,

      Damsons and bilberries,

      Taste them and try:

      Currants and gooseberries,

      Bright-fire-like barberries,

      Figs to fill your mouth,

      Citrons from the South,

      Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;

      Come buy, come buy."

       Evening by evening

      Among the brookside rushes,

      Laura bowed her head to hear,

      Lizzie veiled her blushes:

      Crouching close together

      In the cooling weather,

      With clasping arms and cautioning lips,

      With tingling cheeks and finger-tips.

      "Lie close," Laura said,

      Pricking up her golden head:

      "We must not look at goblin men,

      We must not buy their fruits:

      Who knows upon what soil they fed

      Their hungry thirsty roots?"

      "Come buy," call the goblins

      Hobbling down the glen.

      "O," cried Lizzie, "Laura, Laura,

      You should not peep at goblin men."

      Lizzie covered up her eyes,

      Covered close lest they should look;

      Laura reared her glossy head,

      And whispered like the restless brook:

      "Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,

      Down the glen tramp little men.

      One hauls a basket,

      One bears a plate,

      One lugs a golden dish

      Of many pounds' weight.

      How fair the vine must grow

      Whose grapes are so luscious;

      How warm the wind must blow

      Through those fruit bushes."

      "No," said Lizzie, "no, no, no;

      Their offers should not charm us,

      Their evil gifts would harm us."

      She thrust a dimpled finger

      In each ear, shut eyes and ran:

      Curious Laura chose to linger

      Wondering at each merchant man.

      One had a cat's face,

      One whisked a tail,

      One tramped at a rat's pace,

      One crawled like a snail,

      One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,

      One like a ratel tumbled hurry-scurry.

      She heard a voice like voice of doves

      Cooing all together:

      They sounded kind and full of loves

      In the pleasant weather.

       Laura stretched her gleaming neck

      Like a rush-imbedded swan,

      Like a lily from the beck,

      Like a moonlit poplar branch,

      Like a vessel at the launch

      When its last restraint is gone.

       Backwards up the mossy glen

      Turned and trooped the goblin men,

      With their shrill repeated cry,

      "Come buy, come buy."

      When they reached where Laura was

      They stood stock still upon the moss,

      Leering at each other,

      Brother with queer brother;

      Signalling each other,

      Brother with sly brother.

      One

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