ocks.
Come, little fairies, from far and near;
Come, little fairies, I know you can fly;
Who can be dear if _you_ are not dear?
And who is so fond of a fairy as I?

Fairies, fairies, come if you please,
Nod your heads and ruffle your wings,
Marching in order or standing at ease,
Frolicsome fairies are dear little things!
Golden the grain and silver the rice,
Pleasant the crumbs from Mama's own bread,
Currants pick'd out of the pudding are nice--
Fairies, fairies, come and be fed!

Hushaby, oh! hushaby, oh!
Hide by the door--keep very still--
I must be gentle, I must speak low,
Or frighten the fairies I certainly will.
Fairies are easily frighten'd, I know;
They are so small, we must pity their fears.
Hushaby, oh! hushaby, oh!
Coax them and humour them--poor little dears!

Fairies, fairies, why don't you come?
Fairies, fairies, wherefore delay?
In a few minutes I must run home--
Cross little creatures! you know I can't stay!
See how I scatter your beautiful food--
Good little fairies would come when I call;
Fairies, fairies, _won't_ you be good?
What is the use of my speaking at all?

"Two Friends."

_The Fairy_

Oh, who is so merry
As the light-hearted fairy?
He dances and sings
To the sound of his wings,
With a hey, and a heigh, and a ho!

Oh, who is so merry
As the light-hearted fairy?
His nectar he sips
From the primrose's lips,
With a hey, and a heigh, and a ho!

Oh, who is so merry
As the light-hearted fairy?
His night is the noon,
And his sun is the moon,
With a hey, and a heigh, and a ho!

Unknown.

V

THE QUEEN-MOTHER'S COUNSEL

_A Thought_[7]

It is very nice to think
The world is full of meat and drink,
With little children saying grace
In every Christian kind of place.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

[Footnote 7: _From "Poems and Ballads," copyright, 1895, 1896, by
Chas. Scribner's Sons._]

_Inscription for My Little Son's Silver Plate_[8]

When thou dost eat from off this plate,
I charge thee be thou temperate;
Unto thine elders at the board
Do thou sweet reverence accord;
And, though to dignity inclined,
Unto the serving-fol