And they loitered, hand in hand, Where the snipe along the sand Of the river ran to meet them As the ripple meets the land, Till the dragonfly, in light Gauzy armor, burnished bright, Came tilting down the waters In a wild, bewildered flight. And they heard the kildee's call, And afar, the waterfall, But the rustle of a falling leaf They heard above it all; And the trailing willow crept Deeper in the tide that swept The leafy shallop to the shore, And wept and wept and wept! And the fairy vessel veered From its moorings--tacked and steered For the center of the current-- Sailed away and disappeared: And the burthen that it bore From the long-enchanted shore-- "Alas! the South Wind and the Sun!" I murmur evermore. For the South Wind and the Sun, Each so loves the other one, For all his jolly folly, And frivolity and fun, That our love for them they weigh As their fickle fancies may, And when at last we love them most, They laugh and sail away. THE JOLLY MILLER [Illustration: The Jolly Miller--Title] [Restored Romaunt.] It was a Jolly Miller lived on the River Dee; He looked upon his piller, and there he found a flea: "O Mr. Flea! you have bit' me, And you shall shorely die!" So he scrunched his bones against the stones-- And there he let him lie! Twas then the Jolly Miller he laughed and told his wife, And _she_ laughed fit to kill her, and dropped her carvin'-knife!-- "O Mr. Flea!" "Ho-ho!" "Tee-hee!" They _both_ laughed fit to kill, Until the sound did almost drownd The rumble of the mill! _"Laugh on, my Jolly Miller! and Missus Miller, too!-- But there's a weeping-willer will soon wave over you!"_ The voice was all so awful small-- So very small and slim!-- He durst' infer that it was her, Ner her infer 'twas him! [Illustration: That cat o' yourn I'd kill her] That night the Jolly Miller, says he, "It's Wifey dear, That cat o' yourn, I'd kill her!--her actions is so queer,-- She rubbin' 'ginst the grindstone-legs, And yowlin' at the sky-- And I 'low the moon haint greener Than the yaller of her eye!" And as the Jolly Miller went chuckle-un to bed, Was _Somepin_ jerked his piller from underneath his head! "O Wife," says he, on-easi-lee, "Fetch here that lantern there!" But _Somepin_ moans in thunder tones, "_You tetch it ef you dare!_" 'Twas then the Jolly Miller he trimbled and he quailed-- And his wife choked until her breath come back, 'n' she _wailed!_ And "_O!"_ cried she, "it is _the Flea_, All white and pale and wann-- He's got you in his clutches, and _He's bigger than a man!_" "_Ho! ho! my Jolly Miller," (fer 'twas the Flea, fer shore!) "I reckon you'll not rack my bones ner scrunch 'em any more!_" And then _the Ghost_ he grabbed him clos't, With many a ghastly smile, And from the doorstep stooped and hopped About four hundred mile!