Now the queer little maid on top of the hill Clipped the plume to a scratchy quill— The golden feather with silver bars Of the Faraway Bird who sings to the stars! She wrote and wrote, all night, all day, The curious things it made her say— Wonder-tales and whimsical rhymes, Faraway deeds from faraway times, Told for the clamorous boys and girls, With bangs and braids, with clips and curls. The children laughed and clapped and cried— “Tell it again! Tell more beside!” Then the queer little maid was proud and glad, And this was the good of the gift she had— The magical plume of the Faraway Bird. But the Brownie sighed, for never a word To the busy house on the hilltop came Of flattering love, or wealth, or fame. THE WOODSY ONES Hear them creeping, creeping, creeping, through the mosses and the brush, The Woodsy Ones whom I can never see! Now they snap a twig and falter, now they laugh and whisper “Hush!” As they dodge their little heads behind a tree. Hear them dancing, dancing, dancing, in the grass when I’m abed, And singing at my window in the moon! Oh, the fairy music bubbles in my dizzy little head, And I drift away to Nothing all too soon! THE WEE KNITTER _Click! Click! Click!_ Hark to the needles knitting fast Of the wee Knitter in the sun. Over the fairy finger-tips are cast Gossamer threads by an old witch-spider spun In her den at the heart of a flower In a moonlit hour. _Click! Click! Click!_ The wee small Knitter is all in green, With thistledown hair, And petal-shoon on her silver toes That she swings in the air, From her perch on a tremulous rose, Knitting unseen. _Click! Click! Click!_ The slender needles of the pine Flash spicy fragrance as they go, To and fro, In the sweet sunshine, Knitting a secret few can know, Of magical meshes none may spy With a mortal eye. _Click! Click! Click!_ A fairy laugh rings clear and wild, As eagerly the needles knit, Knot by knot and bit by bit, A purse invisible to hold Not gold— But a bit of luck for a human child.