LITMIR.BIZ

      In winter I get up at night

      And dress by yellow candle-light.

      In summer, quite the other way,

      I have to go to bed by day.

      I have to go to bed and see

      The birds still hopping on the tree,

      Or hear the grown-up people’s feet

      Still going past me in the street.

      And does it not seem hard to you,

      When all the sky is clear and blue,

      And I should like so much to play,

      To have to go to bed by day?

      We go on our walk together—

      Baby and dog and I—

      Three little merry companions,

      ’Neath any sort of sky:

      Blue as our baby’s eyes are,

      Gray like our old dog’s tail;

      Be it windy or cloudy or stormy,

      Our courage will never fail.

      Baby’s a little lady;

      Dog is a gentleman brave;

      If he had two legs as you have,

      He’d kneel to her like a slave;

      As it is, he loves and protects her,

      As dog and gentleman can.

      I’d rather be a kind doggie,

      I think, than a cruel man.

      I saw you toss the kites on high,

      And blow the birds about the sky;

      And all around I heard you pass

      Like ladies’ skirts across the grass—

      O wind, a-blowing all day long,

      O wind, that sings so loud a song!

      I saw the different things you did,

      But always you yourself you hid.

      I felt you push, I heard you call,

      I could not see yourself at all—

      O wind, a-blowing all day long,

      O wind, that sings so loud a song!

      O you, that are so strong and cold,

      O blower, are you young or old?

      Are you a beast of field and tree,

      Or just a stronger child than me?

      O wind, a-blowing all day long,

      O wind, that sings so loud a song!

      Hearts like doors can open with ease

      To very, very little keys;

      And ne’er forget that they are these:

      “I thank you, sir,” and “If you please.”

      Grandma told me all about it,

      Told me so I couldn’t doubt it,

      How she danced, my grandma danced; long ago—

      How she held her pretty head,

      How her dainty skirt she spread,

      How she slowly leaned and rose—long ago.

      Grandma’s hair was bright and sunny,

      Dimpled cheeks, too, oh, how funny!

      Really quite a pretty girl—long ago.

      Bless her! why, she wears a cap,

      Grandma does and takes a nap

      Every single day: and yet

      Grandma danced the minuet—long ago.

      “Modern ways are quite alarming,”

      Grandma says, “but boys were charming”

      (Girls and boys she means of course) “long ago.”

      Brave but modest, grandly shy;

      She would like to have us try

      Just to feel like those who met

      In the graceful minuet—long ago.

      Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night

      Sailed off in a wooden shoe,

      Sailed on a river of crystal light

      Into a sea of dew.

      “Where are you going?” “What do you wish?”

      The old Moon asked the three.

      “We come to fish for the herring fish

      That live in the beautiful sea,

      Nets of silver and gold have we,”

      Said Wynken, Blynken and Nod.

      The old Moon laughed and sang a song

      As they rocked in the wooden shoe,

      And the wind that sped them all night long

      Ruffled the waves of dew.

      The little stars were the herring fish

      That lived in that beautiful sea,—

      “Now cast your nets whenever you wish,

      Never afeard are we!”

      So cried the stars to the fishermen three—

      Wynken, Blynken and Nod.

      All night long their nets they threw

      To the stars in the twinkling foam.

      Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe

      Bringing the fishermen home.

      ’Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed

      As if it could not be,

      And some folks thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed

      Of sailing that beautiful sea.

      But I can name you the fishermen three—

      Wynken,

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