Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "They made strings of the scarlet nikau berries, and hung them round their necks."] PICCANINNIES BY ISABEL MAUD PEACOCKE Author of "Songs of the Happy Isles." "My Friend Phil." "Robin of the Round House." "The Bonny Books of Humorous Verse," etc. Illustrated by TREVOR LLOYD WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington, N.Z. Melbourne and London DEDICATED TO MY LITTLE GOD-DAUGHTER JOAN LUSK TE KUITI, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND If your heart is pure, and your eyes are clear, And you come the one right day of the year, And eat of the fruit of the Magic Tree The wee Bush Folk you will surely see. * * * * * In the green and woody places, Thickets shady, sunlit spaces, Have you never heard us calling, When the golden eve is falling-- When the noon-day sun is beaming-- When the silver moon is gleaming? Have you never seen us dancing-- Through the mossy tree-boles glancing? Have you never caught us gliding Through the tall ferns? laughing--hiding? We are here, we are there-- We are everywhere; Swinging on the tree tops, floating in the air; Hush! Hush! Hush! Creep into the Bush, You will find us everywhere. If you would see, First bathe your eyes, In dew that lies On the bracken tree. * * * * * If you would hear Our elfin mirth To Mother Earth Lay down your ear. * * * * * A-many have come with their bright eyes clear, And their young hearts pure, but--alas! Oh dear! They've made a mistake in the day of the year. Piccaninnies I. CHRISTMAS TREE. (_Pohutukawa_). Long ago the Piccaninnies didn't have a rag to their backs except a huia feather which they wore in their hair. They were the jolliest, tubbiest, brownest babies you ever saw with tiny nubbly knobs on their shoulders, as if they had started to grow wings and then changed their minds about it, and little furry pointed ears, as all wild creatures have. Only these were _not_ wild, but very, very shy. Where did they live? Oh, just anywhere--all about; among the fern, in the long grass, down on the sands, in all the places babies love to roll about in.