Sunlight or starlight,
Tilly, my nilly,
Find me a stem
Of the tiger-lily;
I'll fill it full
From the fountain there
And spirt the water
Over your hair!
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"Good Mistress Sundial, what's the hour?"
"Alack! to tell you I haven't power.
It rains; and I only can work, you see,
When the sun is casting his light upon me.
I'm nothing at all but a senseless block
Whenever his beautiful rays depart;
But ask my neighbor, the Four-o'clock;
She carries the time o' day in her heart."
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Some one in the garden murmurs all the day;
Some one in the garden moans the night away;
Deep in the pine-trees, hidden from our sight,
He murmurs all day, and moans all the night.
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Wire-locks, Curly-pate, Tangle, and Floss,
To make some fine curls they were quite at a loss,
Till they found them a field of the bright dandelion,
And made the green ringlets with only half trying.