I often sit and wish that I
Could be a kite up in the sky,
And ride upon the breeze, and go
Whatever way it chanced to blow.
Then I could look beyond the town,
And see the river winding down,
And follow all the ships that sail
Like me before the merry gale,
Until at last with them I came
To some place with a foreign name.
[298]
KING BELL
FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
Long ago there lived a King
A mighty man and bold,
Who had two sons, named Dong and Ding,
Of whom this tale is told.
Prince Ding was clear of voice, and tall,
A Prince in every line;
Prince Dong, his voice was very small,
And he but four feet nine.
Now both these sons were very dear
To Bell, the mighty King.
They always hastened to appear
When he for them would ring.
Ding never failed the first to be,
But Dong, he followed well,
And at the second summons he
Responded to King Bell.
This promptness of each royal Prince
Is all of them we know,
Except that all their kindred since
Have done exactly so.
And if you chance to know a King
Like this one of the dong,
Just listen once—and there is Ding;
Again—and there is Dong.
[299]
DAISIES
FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN
At evening when I go to bed
I see the stars shine overhead;
They are the little daisies white
That dot the meadows of the Night.
And often while I'm dreaming so,
Across the sky the Moon will go;
It is a lady, sweet and fair,
Who comes to gather daisies there.
For, when at morning I arise,
There's not a star left in the skies;
She's picked them all and dropped them down
Into the meadows of the town.
The three poems by Eugene Field (Nos. [300]-[302]) are used by special permission of the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City. Field was born at St. Louis in 1850, and died at Chicago in 1895. The quaint fantastical conceptions in these poems have made them supreme favorites with children. No. [300] belongs to the list of the world's great lullabies.