VIII
"I know why the daisy is white, my dear, I know why the seas are blue;
I know that the world is a dream, my dear, and I know that the dream is true;
I know why the rose and the toad-stool grow, as a curse and a crimson boon,
Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.
IX
"If I gaze at a rose, do you know, it grows till it overshadows the earth,
Like a wonderful Tree of Knowledge, my dear, the Tree of our evil and good;
But I dare not tell you the terrible vision that gave the toad-stool birth,
The dream of a heart that breaks, my dear, and a Tree that is bitter with blood.
X
"Oh, Love may wander wide as the wind that blows from sea to sea,
But a wooden dream, for me, my dear, and a painted memory;
For the God that has bidden the toad-stool grow has writ in his cosmic rune,
Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon."
XI
Then he stared at the child and he laughed aloud, and she suddenly screamed and fled,
As he dreamed of enticing her out thro' the ferns to a quarry that gapped the hill,
To hurtle her down and grin as her gold hair scattered around her head
Far, far below, like a sunflower disk, so crimson-spattered and still.
XII
"Ah, hush!" he cried; and his dark old eyes were wet with a sacred love
As he kissed the wooden face of his doll and winked at the skies above,
"I know, I know why the toad-stools grow, and the rest of the world will, soon;
Hey! diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon."