Taking a Pull on the Watery Main.
Far from placid pleasure
Fashion's nomads roam;
Wisdom finds the treasure
In its fullest measure
Peacefully at home.
Free from by-the-way bores
Of hotel and train,
Rest we from our labours,
With our fair young neighbours
Round us once again.
Bees in drowsy fettle
Lazy lilies rob;
Slumbrously they settle,
Thrumming like a kettle
On the Summer's hob.
Flies their mystic mazes
Intricately thread,
Where the sunshine blazes
Through the cedarn hazes,
Just above my head.
Pussy, with her fur feet
Curled beneath her breast,
Drowzes where the turf-heat
Soothes her with a surfeit
Of delicious rest.
Now a laughing quarrel
Stirs the stilly air,
Where, beyond the laurel,
With their white apparel
Glistening in the glare,
Boys and girls together
Make a gallant crew,
Boys in highest feather,
Girls like summer weather,
Bright and sweet and true.