Gone are those voices, but the others came. Joyous and free, whose spirit was the same; And other pansies, robed as those of old, Peeped up and smiled in purple, white and gold. For pansies are, I think, the little gleams Of children's visions from a world of dreams, Jewels of innocence and joy and mirth, Alight with laughter as they fall to earth. Below, the ancient guardian, it may hap, The kindly mother, takes them in her lap, Decks them with glowing petals and replaces In the glad air the friendly pansy-faces. So tread not rashly, children, lest you crush A part of childhood in a thoughtless rush. Would you not treat them gently if you knew Pansies are little bits of children too? THE DRAGON OF WINTER HILL I This is the tale the old men tell, the tale that was told to me, Of the blue-green dragon, The dreadful dragon, The dragon who flew so free, The last of his horrible scaly race Who settled and made his nesting place Some hundreds of thousands of years ago. One day, as the light was falling low And the turbulent wind was still, In a stony hollow, Where none dared follow, Beyond the ridge on the gorse-clad summit, the summit of Winter Hill! The news went round in the camp that night; it was Dickon who brought it first How the wonderful dragon, The fiery dragon, On his terrified eyes had burst. "I was out," he said, "for a fat young buck, But never a touch I had of luck; And still I wandered and wandered on Till all the best of the day was gone; When, suddenly, lo, in a flash of flame Full over the ridge a green head came, A green head flapped with a snarling lip, And a long tongue set with an arrow's tip. I own I didn't stand long at bay, But I cast my arrows and bow away, And I cast my coat, and I changed my plan, And forgot the buck, and away I ran-- And, oh, but my heart was chill: For still as I ran I heard the bellow Of the terrible slaughtering fierce-eyed fellow Who has made his lair on the gorse-clad summit, the summit of Winter Hill." Then the women talked, as the women will, and the men-folk they talked too Of the raging dragon, The hungry dragon, The dragon of green and blue. And the Bards with their long beards flowing down, They sat apart and were seen to frown.