r beads
Bespread o'er velvet green,
Is scattered on the wakeful meads
By angel hands unseen.
"Good-morrow, robin in the trees!"
The star-eyed daisy cries;
"Good-morrow," sings the morning breeze
Unto the ruddy skies;
"Good-morrow, every living thing!"
Kind Nature seems to say,
And all her works devoutly sing
A hymn to birth of day,
So, haste, without delay,
Haste, fairy friends, on silver wing,
And to your homes away!

"But the fairies could never leave little master so unceremoniously.
Before betaking themselves to their pretty homes under the rocks near
the brook, they would address a parting song to his eyes, and this song
they called a matin invocation:

TO A SLEEPING BABY'S EYES

And thou, twin orbs of love and joy!
Unveil thy glories with the morn--
Dear eyes, another day is born--
Awake, O little sleeping boy!
Bright are the summer morning skies,
But in this quiet little room
There broods a chill, oppressive gloom--
All for the brightness of thine eyes.
Without those radiant orbs of thine
How dark this little world would be--
This sweet home-world that worships thee--
So let their wondrous glories shine
On those who love their warmth and joy--
Awake, O sleeping little boy.

"So that ended the fairy operetta, did it?" inquired the match-box.

"Yes," said the little shoe, with a sigh of regret. "The fairies were
such bewitching creatures, and they sang so sweetly, I could have
wished they would never stop their antics and singing. But, alas! I
fear I shall never see them again."

"What makes you think so?" asked the brass candlestick.

"I 'm sure I can't tell," replied the little shoe; "only everything is
so strange-like and so changed from what it used to be that I hardly
know whether indeed I am still the same little shoe I used to be."

"Why, what can you mean?" queried the old clock, with a puzzled look on
her face.

"I will try to tell you," said the little shoe. "You see, my mate and
our master and I were great friends; as I have said, we roamed and
frolicked around together all day, and at night my little mate and I
watched at master's bedside while he slept. One day we three took a
long ramble, away up the street and beyond where the houses were built,
until we came into a beautiful green field, where the grass was very
tall and green, and where there were pretty flowers of every k