Books he shall read in hill and tree;
The flowers his weather shall portend,
The birds his moralists shall be,
And everything his friend.

Such man in England I have seen;
He mov'd my heart with fresh delight;
And had I not the swallow been,

I had been Gilbert White.

THE SIX CARPENTERS' CASE

(1 Smith, L. C. 133, 7th Ed.)

THIS case befell at four of the clock

(now listeneth what I shall say),

and the year was the seventh of James the First,

on a fine September day.

The birds on the bough sing loud and sing low,

what trespass shall be ab initio.

It was Thomas Newman and five his feres (three more would have made them nine), and they entered into John Vaux's house, that had the Queen's Head to sign.

The birds on the bough sing loud and sing low,

what trespass shall be ab initio.

They called anon for a quart of wine

(they were carpenters all by trade), and they drank about till they drank it out,

and when they had drunk they paid.

The birds on the bough sing loud and sing low,

what trespass shall be ab initio.

One spake this word in John Ridding's

ear

(white manchets are sweet and fine):

"Fair sir, we are fain of a penn'orth of bread

and another quart of wine.”

The birds on the bough sing loud and sing low,

what trespass shall be ab initio.

Full lightly thereof they did eat and drink (to drink is iwis no blame).

"Now tell me eight pennies," quoth Master Vaux;

but they would not pay the same.

The birds on the bough sing loud and sing low,

what trespass shall be ab initio.

"Ye have trespassed with force and arms. ye knaves

(the six be too strong for me), but your tortious entry shall cost you dear,

and that the King's Court shall see.

The birds on the bough sing loud and nought low,

your trespass was wrought ab initio."

Sed per totam curiam 't was well resolved (note, reader, this difference)

that in mere not doing no trespass is, and John Vaux went empty thence.

The birds on the bough sing loud and sing low,

no trespass was here ab initio.

THE JUMBLIES

THEY went to sea in a sieve, they did;
In a sieve they went to sea;
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,

In a sieve they went to sea.

And when the sieve turn'd round and round,

And every one cried, "You'll be drown'd!" They call'd aloud, "Our sieve ain't big : But we don't care a button; we don't care a fig:

In a sieve we'll go to sea!"

Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live :

Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;

And they went to sea in a sieve.

They sail'd to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all cover'd with trees:
And they bought an owl, and a useful cart,
And a pound of rice, and a cranberry-tart,
And a hive of silvery bees;

And they bought a pig, and some green jackdaws,

And a lovely monkey with lollipop paws, And forty bottles of ring-bo-ree,

And no end of Stilton cheese :

TOPSY-TURVY WORLD

Ir the butterfly courted the bee,
And the owl the porcupine ;
If churches were built in the sea,
And three times one was nine;
If the pony rode his master,

If the buttercups ate the cows,
If the cats had the dire disaster

To be worried, sir, by the mouse; If mamma, sir, sold the baby

To a gypsy for half a crown; If a gentleman, sir, was a lady, — The world would be Upside-down! If any or all of these wonders

Should ever come about,

I should not consider them blunders, For I should be Inside-out!

---

Then, with black at the border, jacket
And this- and this- she will not lack it;
Skirts? Why, there are skirts, of course,
And shoes and stockings we shall enforce,
With a proper bodice, in the proper place,
(Stays that lace have had their days
And made their martyrs); likewise garters,
All entire. But our desire

Is to show you her night attire,
At least a part of it. Pray admire

This sweet white thing that she goes to bed in!

It's not the one that's made for her wedding:

That is special, a new design,
Made with a charm and a countersign,
Three times three and nine times nine :
These are only her usual clothes.
Look, there's a wardrobe! gracious knows
It's pretty enough, as far as it goes!

So you see the way we dress the Doll :
You might make her a shepherdess, the
Doll,

If you gave her a crook with pastoral hook,
With sheep, and a shed, and a shallow brook,
And all that, out of the poetry-book.

Chorus

Bless the Doll, you may press the Doll,
But do not crumple and mess the Doll!
This is the way we dress the Doll;
If you had not seen, could you guess the
Doll?

I SAW A NEW WORLD

I SAW a new world in my dream,
Where all the folks alike did seem:
There was no Child, there was no Mother,
There was no Change, there was no Other.

For everything was Same, the Same ;
There was no praise, there was no blame;
There was neither Need nor Help for it;
There was nothing fitting or unfit.

Nobody laugh'd, nobody wept ;
None grew weary, so none slept ;
There was nobody born, and nobody wed;
This world was a world of the living-dead.

I long'd to hear the Time-Clock strike
In the world where people were all alike;
I hated Same, I hated Forever;
I long'd to say Neither, or even Never.

I long'd to mend, I long'd to make;
I long'd to give, I long'd to take;
I long'd for a change, whatever came after,
I long'd for crying, I long'd for laughter.

At last I heard the Time-Clock boom,
And woke from my dream in my little room ;
With a smile on her lips my Mother was
nigh,

And I heard the Baby crow and cry.

And I thought to myself, How nice it is
For me to live in a world like this,
Where things can happen, and clocks can
strike,

And none of the people are made alike ;

Where Love wants this, and Pain wants that,

Where all our hearts want Tit for Tat In the jumbles we make with our heads and our hands,

In a world that nobody understands, But with work, and hope, and the right to call

Upon Him who sees it and knows us all!