THE FAIRY IN WINTER There was a Fairy--flake of winter-- Who, when the snow came, whispering, Silence, Sister crystal to crystal sighing, Making of meadow argent palace, Night a star-sown solitude, Cried 'neath her frozen eaves, "I burn here!" Wings diaphanous, beating bee-like, Wand within fingers, locks enspangled, Icicle foot, lip sharp as scarlet, She lifted her eyes in her pitch-black hollow-- Green as stalks of weeds in water-- Breathed: stirred. Rilled from her heart the ichor, coursing, Flamed and awoke her slumbering magic. Softlier than moth's her pinions trembled; Out into blackness, light-like, she flittered, Leaving her hollow cold, forsaken. In air, o'er crystal, rang twangling night-wind. Bare, rimed pine-woods murmured lament. [Illustration] SLEEPYHEAD [Illustration] As I lay awake in the white moonlight I heard a faint singing in the wood, "Out of bed, Sleepyhead, Put your white foot, now; Here are we Beneath the tree Singing round the root now." I looked out of window, in the white moonlight, The leaves were like snow in the wood-- "Come away, Child, and play Light with the gnomies; In a mound, Green and round, That's where their home is. "Honey sweet, Curds to eat, Cream and frumenty, Shells and beads, Poppy seeds, You shall have plenty." But, as soon as I stooped in the dim moonlight To put on my stocking and my shoe, The sweet shrill singing echoed faintly away, And the grey of the morning peeped through, And instead of the gnomies there came a red robin To sing of the buttercups and dew. SAM'S THREE WISHES; or LIFE'S LITTLE WHIRLIGIG [Illustration] "I'm thinking and thinking," said old Sam Shore, "'Twere somebody _knocking_ I heard at the door." From the clock popped the cuckoo and cuckooed out eight, As there in his chair he wondering sate ... "There's no one I knows on would come so late, A-clicking the latch of an empty house With nobbut inside 'un but me and a mouse.... Maybe a-waking in sleep I be, And 'twere out of a dream came that tapping to me." At length he cautiously rose, and went, And with thumb upon latch awhile listening bent, Then slowly drew open the door. And behold! There stood a Fairy!--all green and gold, Mantled up warm against dark and cold, And smiling up into his candle shine, Lips like wax, and cheeks like wine, As saucy and winsome a thing to see As are linden buds on a linden tree. Stock-still in the doorway stood simple Sam, A-ducking his head, with "Good-e'en to 'ee, Ma'am."