The Brownies." I
must tell you I have read Aunt Mary the beginning of my new story, and
she likes it very much. It will be longer than "The Brownies." ... I
am writing most conscientiously--it will not be a bit longer than it
should be, but naturally of itself will spread into a good deal. In
fact, it is several stories together--a _Russian_ one among them
("Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances").

TO A.E.

_Ecclesfield_. May 28, 1866.

I send you a song,[33] "which is not very long"--and that is about its
only merit. I am utterly disgusted with it myself for producing
nothing better.... However, here it is, and now I must explain it.

I have endeavoured to bear in mind three things--simplicity of idea,
few verses, and a musical swing. I have constructed it so that one
child's voice may sing for the Child, another child's voice for the
Bird, and as many children as you please in the Chorus.

The "Hush! hush! hush!" I thought ought to have a piano effectiveness,
and it is a word children enjoy.

[Footnote 33: "The Promise": "Verses for Children." Vol. ix. Set to
music by Alexander Ewing.--_Aunt Judy's Magazine_, July 1866.]

THE PROMISE.

_Child._

Five blue eggs hatching,
With bright eyes watching,
Little brown mother, you sit on your nest.

_Bird._

Oh! pass me blindly,
Oh! spare me kindly,
Pity my terror, and leave me to rest.

_Chorus of Children._

Hush! hush! hush!
'Tis a poor mother thrush.
When the blue eggs hatch, the brown birds will sing--
This is a promise made in the spring.

_Child._

Five speckled thrushes,
In leafy bushes,
Singing sweet songs to the hot summer sky.
In and out twitting,
Here and there flitting,
Happy in life as the long days go by.

_Chorus._

Hush! hush! hush!
'Tis the song of the thrush:
Hatched are the blue eggs, the brown birds do sing--
Keeping the promise made in the spring.

If you liked, one voice, or half the party, might sing, "When the blue
eggs hatch," and the other, "The brown birds will sing." Some are
doubtful about the last lines, but the word "promise" had a jubilant
musical rhythm in my head. However, you can alter it; if it has not
the s