l
Cluster up against the stucco, as they did about that wall,
Grey, and gritty, and glass-spiked, of our tumble-down old cot
Out Epping way, in boy-time long ago, and quite a lot
Of remembrances came crowding, like good ghostes, in that scent;
There's the mother's call to dinner, there's the landlord's call--for rent!
And the call of the rooks,--and another call, fur off,
Like a whisper from a grave-yard, green and silent.
Some may scoff
At a Cockney's chat of laylocks. I could bury my old phiz
In their crisp and nutty coolness, as I did when flirty Liz,
My first sweetheart, sent me packing, one Spring mornin'--for a while--
And them blossoms cooled my anger--most as much as the arch smile
Which won me back to wooin'.
There's a blackbird on the top
Of yon tall, half bare acacia, pipes as if he'd never stop,
Tryin' all his tunelets over, like a sort of talking flute:--
"_Chip-chip! Tsee-tsee! Chu-chu! Chu-rook!_" goes the bird of sable suit.
"_We-know-it! We-know-it! We-know-it! Bring-the-whip!--the whip!--the whip!
"Chu-rook-chu-chu! Chu-rook-chu-chu! Tsee-tsee-chu-chu-chip-chip!_"
So he pours his pantin' heart out in a song half tune, half patter,
Like a meller music-haller of the tree-tops!
Ah--what matter
That 'tis only London's outskirts, that I'm a poor Cockney cove,
When this Wondrous Spring is on us? As my shallow on I shove,
And blare out my "All-a-blowing, All-a-growing!" down the streets,
There's a something fresh and shining-like in every face I meets!
Tis the Spring-love breaking through them! Wy, the very dirt looks clean
In the shimmer of the sunlight, and the shadow of the green.
_All-a-blowing! All-a-growing!_ When I shout, I seem to sing,
For my cry takes on a music. It's the very Voice of Spring!

* * * * *

[Illustration: "MEAT FOR YOUR MASTER!"

"WE SHALL ONLY BE TWO TO-NIGHT; COOK--YOUR MASTER AND
ME--SO ALL WE SHALL WANT WILL BE SOUP AND FISH AND LAMB
AND ASPARAGUS, WITH A _SOUFFLE_ TO FOLLOW, AND A LITTLE
SWEET-BREAD AFTER THE FISH, YOU KNOW!"

"YES, MA'AM. AND FOR THE KITCHEN?"

"OH--WELL--THERE'S SOME OF THAT POTTED HAM STILL LEFT WE HAD
FOR BREAKFAST YESTERDAY. IT'S JUST ON THE TURN, YOU KNOW, SO
YOU MAY AS WELL FINISH IT DOWNSTAIRS. IT WILL DO VERY WELL FOR
YOUR DINNER TO-DAY, AND TO-MORROW YOU SHALL EACH HAVE AN EGG!"
]