I left you!' At that moment I slipped through the closing
door, and as I ran across the snow, I heard the mother say,--'What
shadow can that be, passing so quickly?' And Charlie answered with a
merry laugh,--'Oh! mamma, I suppose it must be the funny shadow that
has been playing such games with me all the time you were out.' As soon
as the door was shut, I crept along the wall and looked in at the
dining-room window. And I heard his mamma say, as she led him into the
room, 'What an imagination the boy has!' Ha! ha! ha! Then she looked at
him, and the tears came in her eyes; and she stooped down over him, and
I heard the sounds of a mingling kiss and sob."

"I always look for nurseries full of children," said another; "and this
winter I have been very fortunate. I am sure children belong especially
to us. One evening, looking about in a great city, I saw through the
window into a large nursery, where the odious gas had not yet been
lighted. Round the fire sat a company of the most delightful children I
had ever seen. They were waiting patiently for their tea. It was too
good an opportunity to be lost. I hurried away, and gathering together
twenty of the best Shadows I could find, returned in a few moments; and
entering the nursery, we danced on the walls one of our best dances. To
be sure it was mostly extemporized; but I managed to keep it in harmony
by singing this song, which I made as we went on. Of course the
children could not hear it; they only saw the motions that answered to
it; but with them they seemed to be very much delighted indeed, as I
shall presently prove to you. This was the song:--

'Swing, swang, swingle, swuff,
Flicker, flacker, fling, fluff!
Thus we go,
To and fro;
Here and there,
Everywhere,
Born and bred;
Never dead,
Only gone.

'On! Come on.
Looming, glooming,
Spreading, fuming,
Shattering, scattering,
Parting, darting,
Settling, starting,
All our life
Is a strife,
And a wearying for rest
On the darkness' friendly breast.

'Joining, splitting,
Rising, sitting,
Laughing, shaking,
Sides all aching,
Grumbling, grim, and gruff.
Swingle, swangle, swuff!

'Now a knot of darkness;
Now dissolved gloom;
Now a pall of blackness
Hiding all the room.
Flicker, flacker, fluff!
Black, and black enough!

'Dancing now like demons;
Lying like the dead;
Gladly would we stop it,
And go down t