I dreamed of the country that night, of the orchard, the sky, The voice that had mocked coming after and over and under. But at last--in a day or two namely--Eleven and I Were very fast friends, and to him I confided the wonder. He said that was Echo. 'Was Echo a wise kind of bee That had learned how to laugh: could it laugh in one's ear and then fly And laugh again yonder?' 'No; Echo'--he whispered it low-- 'Was a woman, they said, but a woman whom no one could see And no one could find; and he did not believe it, not he, But he could not get near for the river that held us asunder. Yet I that had money--a shilling, a whole silver shilling-- We might cross if I thought I would spend it.' 'Oh yes, I was willing'-- And we ran hand in hand, we ran down to the ferry, the ferry, And we heard how she mocked at the folk with a voice clear and merry When they called for the ferry; but oh! she was very--was very Swift-footed. She spoke and was gone; and when Oliver cried, 'Hie over! hie over! you man of the ferry--the ferry!' By the still water's side she was heard far and wide--she replied And she mocked in her voice sweet and merry, 'You man of the ferry, You man of--you man of the ferry!' 'Hie over!' he shouted. The ferryman came at his calling, Across the clear reed-border'd river he ferried us fast;-- Such a chase! Hand in hand, foot to foot, we ran on; it surpass'd All measure her doubling--so close, then so far away falling, Then gone, and no more. Oh! to see her but once unaware, And the mouth that had mocked, but we might not (yet sure she was there!), Nor behold her wild eyes and her mystical countenance fair.