"Her captains are Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars,
Three glittering warriors bold;
And the Milky Way's studded with forces of stars
In numbers that cannot be told.
"When Aurora comes up through the Orient gate,
And chanticleer crows to the sun,
The moon will retire, and the stars in her wake
Will follow their queen every one."
R. A. Foster.[J]
FOOTNOTES:
[J] When I asked my friend, Robert Adams Foster, whose Boy Ballads are being read with unusual interest in Scotland, to write a Scotch lullaby, he sent me the above verses.
CHAPTER XIII.
A FAVOURITE NURSERY HYMN.
Known to the rustics of England, France, and Italy since the days of the great Charlemagne, has a peculiar history. Like many other rhymes of yore it is fast dying out of memory. The educational influences of the National Schools in the former part of this century, and the Board Schools at a later date, have killed this little suppliant's prayer, as well as most of the other rural rhymes and folk-lore tales handed down by mother to child.