They hold a more enduring seed

And bring you, from a kindly friend,

Good will, to dignify the deed.

E. P.

CONTENTS

  1. [Pixies' Plot]
  2. [The Charm]
  3. [Joe's Donkey]
  4. [Diana]
  5. [The Mouse and the Epitaph]
  6. [Echo and Narcissus]
  7. [The Sandhills]
  8. [The Ghost]
  9. [A Test]
  10. [Dreams]
  11. [The Fire-drake]
  12. [The Seven Maidens]
  13. [The Heron]
  14. [The Grief]
  15. [On the Ebb]
  16. [Scandal]
  17. [To a Bat]
  18. [Moon-Moth]
  19. [The Hunting]
  20. [The Good Girl]
  21. [The Lover]
  22. [The Motor Car]
  23. [The Sea Scouts]
  24. [Song for the Spheres]
  25. [The Circle]
  26. [To Anthea's Bosom]
  27. [Dust]
  28. [Young Night]
  29. [Jill Bassett]
  30. [Tailpiece]

THE PIXIES' PLOT

(A pleasant maxim of old time directed the gardener to leave one corner as nature planned it, for the little people. Thus welcomed, they might be trusted to show their human hosts goodwill, friendship, and service.)

You have it, or you have it not:

The cantle of the Pixies' plot,

Where never spade nor hoe shall ply

To break that treasured sanctity.

Touch no bloom there; uproot no weed;

Let what will blow.

Suffer the thistle, briar and thorn to grow,

The dandelion to seed.

Though full the garden of your mind,

Well planted on a soil that's kind;

Your hedges gay, your borders clean,

Your seasons fair, your clime serene,

Yet trammel not the Pixies' mite,

For well-coming

Chance little, wandering, weary, fairy thing

Lost in the dim owl-light.

Still virgin, free and set apart,

Ordain one dingle of your heart,

Where visions home and wing to you

The golden dreams that might come true.

Herein a gentler dawn than day

Shall often break

For foot-sore spirits, tired of reason's ache,

And children come to play.

THE CHARM