UNCLE CHARLES.
IF I WERE A FAIRY.
If I were a fairy slight and small,
Say, about as tall
As a span-worm forming the letter O,
What do you think I would do? I know!
In the bell of the lily I'd rock and swing,
Twitter and sing;
And, taking the gold-dust under me,
I'd splash the hips of the buzzing bee,
I'd count the curls of the hyacinth
By the fallen plinth,
And make them glossy with morning dew
By sunrise tinted with purple and blue;
And out of the sunset sky I'd get
For the violet
Yellow and red, and dark marine,
And purples deep, and a tender green;
And all night long, as they lay in sleep,
I would paint and steep
Their velvet cheeks in a hundred dyes,
That well they might open great staring eyes.
Unseen I would come where the tired ants tug
At a heavy slug,
With my rye-beard lance I'd push it along,
And they'd think, "All at once we are wondrous strong!"
In the nest of the robin, under the eaves
Of the apple-leaves,
I'd drop a worm in the gaping throats
That answer my chirp of the mother's notes.
Oh, what would I do as a fairy small?
I cannot tell all;
But I would do much with a right good will:
To all things good, and to nothing ill.
And I'd laugh and skip, like a bird on wing,
Twitter and sing,
And make boys and girls, and birds and flowers,
All say, "What a lovely world is ours!"
Well, what if I am not quite so small?
I can do it all
In my own sweet home by the same good will,
No fairy, but something nobler still.