Beside the stilly lake and silent brook,—
A host of little boys and maidens play
With pastors, masters, keeping holiday.
Their merry whistle and their shrill-voic’d tongues,
The hip-hurrahs join’d with their youthful songs,
Make one glad concert of unusual mirth—
One happy unison of joy on earth.
They tumble, rumble, on the beauteous lawn,
As free from care as are the swift-foot fawn
That stray beneath yon summer-blooming trees,