Followed their pattering feet.

The swallows, twittering in the air,

Seemed sharers in the general gladness;

The stares from oak and beach and elm,

Chattered in merry madness.

Across the drawbridge, as I gazed,

A merry, laughing cavalcade,

With dogs in leash and hawk on hand,

Dashed madly down the glade.

Among them, stateliest of them all,