Said Edith at last, "and I think I'll ask

Papa to excuse my Arithmetic,—

In such warm weather I might be sick

If I taxed this poor little brain of mine."

So she listened, you see, to shadow and shine;

And then full-length on the velvet grass,

She dreamed of delights that would come to pass

When she, too large for the rigid rule

Of the happy home, or the stricter school,

Should be a woman, and quite at ease