[Illustration]

  We’ll betake us home-along
  Hand in hand at evensong.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

III

THE DOLLY’S MOTHER

[W.W.]

  A little maid, of summers four—­
    Did you compute her years,—­
  And yet how infinitely more
    To me her age appears: 

  I mark the sweet child’s serious air,
    At her unplayful play,—­
  The tiny doll she mothers there
    And lulls to sleep away,

  Grows—­’neath the grave similitude—­
    An infant real, to me,
  And she a saint of motherhood
    In hale maturity.

[Illustration]

  So, pausing in my lonely round,
    And all unseen of her,
  I stand uncovered—­her profound
    And abject worshipper.

* * * * *

[Illustration:  “LEND ME THE BREATH OF A FRESHENING GALE.”]

* * * * *

IV

WIND OF THE SEA

[A.T.]

  Wind of the Sea, come fill my sail—­
  Lend me the breath of a freshening gale
    And bear my port-worn ship away! 
  For O the greed of the tedious town—­
  The shutters up and the shutters down! 
    Wind of the Sea, sweep over the bay
      And bear me away!—­away!

  Whither you bear me, Wind of the Sea,
  Matters never the least to me: 
    Give me your fogs, with the sails adrip,
  Or the weltering path thro’ the starless night—­
  On, somewhere, is a new daylight
    And the cheery glint of another ship
      As its colors dip and dip!

[Illustration]

  Wind of the Sea, sweep over the bay
    And bear me away!—­away!

* * * * *

V

SUBTLETY

[R.B.]

  Whilst little Paul, convalescing, was staying
  Close indoors, and his boisterous classmates paying

[Illustration]

    Him visits, with fresh school-notes and surprises,—­
  With nettling pride they sprung the word “Athletic,”
  With much advice and urgings sympathetic
    Anent “Athletic exercises.”  Wise as
  Lad might look, quoth Paul:  “I’ve pondered o’er that
  ‘Athletic,’ but I mean to take, before that,
    Downstairic and outdooric exercises.”

* * * * *

VI

BORN TO THE PURPLE

[W.M.]

  Most-like it was this kingly lad
  Spake out of the pure joy he had
  In his child-heart of the wee maid
  Whose eerie beauty sudden laid
  A spell upon him, and his words
  Burst as a song of any bird’s:—­