THREE CHILDREN SLIDING
—Three children sliding on the ice
All on a summer's day.
FOUR are the names of the seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Summer is hot and winter is cold, while the others partake in
Greater or less degree of cold and caloric commingled.
Surely, I think, it is well to be good, and my mind is astonished
At the exceeding sin of sinfulness, whereof the perils
Shown in my verse are apparent. Three rosy children were sliding
Over the ice in summer and—fate so decreeing, it happened—
Fell through the ice and were drowned. Had these children in winter been sliding
On the bare earth, or had they, by the peaceful fireside sitting,
Studied their catechism, it were strange—so the novel thought strikes me—
Even in summer's heat had the ice broken suddenly under
Avoirdupois of these babes, and diluted the well-springs of pleasure.