At first he set to sing all birds,
With twittering voices small and clear,
And bade them say they felt no grief
To find the snow and mildewed leaf
Heaped up in nests they built last year.
Then found a crystal alcove high
The bluebird carolled to the sky.
The robin whistled cheer, good cheer!
The sparrow rung his matin bells,
And far away in reedy dells
The quail a friendly greeting sent.
Then was the stifled pine not loth
To shuffle off the dull white sloth;
Then leaped the brook by icy stair,
And snapped his fetters as he went;
The sun shone out most full and fair,
And Winter rose and struck his tent.
Edith M. Thomas.
Transcriber's Note
On pp. [13-14] the text reads, "The king took up the sack nearest to him, their surprise, when out rushed a great heap of brown leaves, which flew all over the floor and half choked them with dust!" It appears there may be some missing text between "nearest to him" and "their surprise"; there does not appear to be any damage or obscured text in the original book, and the line count matches that of other pages, so it may be that a line was omitted during typesetting. The transcriber was unable to locate an alternative printing of the story, so, as it is impossible to determine what that text may be, the omission is preserved as printed.
Poe is referred to in this text as Edgar Allen Poe, rather than the more usual Edgar Allan Poe. This is preserved as printed.
Although authors and translators are listed in the Table of Contents, their names are not always included with their prose in the main text. This convention is retained here to match the original book.
Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.
Hyphenation and capitalisation has been made consistent within individual pieces in the book.
The following amendments have been made:
First page of [Acknowledgments]—Edinburg amended to Edinburgh—"To T. C. and E. C. Jack of Edinburgh ..."
Second page of [Acknowledgments]—Procter amended to Proctor—"... James Russell Lowell, Edna Dean Proctor, ..."