Is she familiar with the wars
Of Julius Caesar?
Do crucibles, and Leyden jars,
And Browning, and the moons of Mars,
And Euclid, please her?
She studies music, I opine;
O day of knowledge!
And other mysteries divine
Of imitation or design,
Taught in the college.
A charm attends her everywhere,
A sense of beauty;
Care smiles to see her free of care;
The hard heart loves her unaware;
Age pays her duty.
Her innocence is panoply,
Her weakness, power;
The earth her guardian, and the sky;
God’s every star is her ally,
And every flower.
THE READERS.
COME hither, my ten years’ maiden;
O’er what do you ponder so much?
“I am reading in Tanglewood Stories,
The tale of the Golden Touch.”
Ah! Hattie, my flax-haired darling,
How buried in study you seem.
“I am reading in Tales from Shakespeare,
Of Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
And there on the sofa is Mayo;
My laddie, what pleases you so?
“This picture and fable in Æsop,—
See here,—of the Pitcher and Crow.”
Come hither, my dream-eyed baby,
You’re falling asleep on the floor!
“I’m reading in Sing Song, papa,—
I wish you would read me some more.”