’See with what freedom, what beautiful ease,
        She leaps over hollows and mounds in berrace;
      Hear how she joyously laughs when the breeze
        Tosses her hat off, and blows in her face! 
      It’s only a play-gown of homeliest cotton
        She wears, that her finer silk dress may be saved;
      And happily, too, she has wholly forgotten
        The nurse and her charge to be better behaved.

      ’Must a time come when this child’s way of caring
        For only the present enjoyment shall pass;
      When she’ll learn to take thought of the dress that she’s wearing,
        And grow rather fond of consulting the glass? 
      Well, never mind; nothing really can change her;
        Fair childhood will grow to as fair maidenhood;
      Her unselfish, sweet nature is safe from all danger;
        I know she will always be charming and good.

      ’For when she takes care of a still younger brother,
        You see her stop short in the midst of her mirth,
      Gravely and tenderly playing the mother: 
        Can there be anything fairer on earth? 
      So proud of her charge she appears, so delighted;
        Of all her perfections (indeed, they’re a host),
      This loving attention to others, united
        With naive self-unconsciousness, charms me the most.

      ’What hearts that unthinkingly under short jackets
        Are beating to-day in a wonderful wise
      About racing, or jumping, or cricket, or rackets,
        One day will beat at a smile from those eyes! 
      Ah, how I envy the one that shall win her,
        And see that sweet smile no ill-humour shall damp,
      Shining across the spread table at dinner,
        Or cheerfully bright in the light of the lamp.

      ’Ah, little fairy! a very short while,
        Just once or twice, in a brief country stay,
      I saw you; but when will your innocent smile
        That I keep in my mem’ry have faded away? 
      For when, in the midst of my trouble and doubt,
        I remember your face with its laughter and light,
      It’s as if on a sudden the sun had shone out,
        And scattered the shadow, and made the world bright.’

      CHARTREUSE.

      (Liqueur.)

      ’Who could refuse
      Green-eyed Chartieuse? 
      Liquor for heretics,
      Turks, Christians, or Jews
      For beggar or queen,
      For monk or for dean;

      Ripened and mellow
      (The green, not the yellow),
      Give it its dues,
      Gay little fellow,
      Dressed up in green! 
      I love thee too well, O
      Laughing Chartreuse!

      ’O the delicate hues
      That thrill through the green! 
      Colours which Greuze
      Would die to have seen!