HI-SPY.

STRANGE that the city thoroughfare,

Noisy and bustling all the day,

Should with the night renounce its care And lend itself to children's play!

Oh, girls are girls, and boys are boys, And have been so since Abel's birth, And shall be so 'til dolls and toys

Are with the children swept from earth.

The self-same sport that crowns the day

Of many a Syrian shepherd's son, Beguiles the little lads at play

By night in stately Babylon.

I hear their voices in the street,

Yet 't is so different now from then! Come, brother! from your winding sheet, And let us two be boys again!

1886.

LITTLE CROODLIN DOO.

Ho, pretty bee, did you see my croodlin doo?

Ho, little lamb, is she jinkin' on the lea?

Ho, bonnie fairy, bring my dearie back to me
Got a lump o' sugar an' a posie for you,
Only bring back my wee, wee croodlin doo !

Why, here you are, my little croodlin doo!

Looked in er cradle, but did n't find you there, Looked f'r my wee, wee croodlin doo ever'where; Ben kind lonesome all er day withouten you; Where you ben, my

little wee, wee croodlin doo?

Now you go balow, my little croodlin doo;

Now you go rockaby ever so far,

Rockaby, rockaby, up to the star

That's winkin' an' blinkin' an' singin' to you

As you go balow, my wee, wee croodlin doo!

THE "HAPPY ISLES" OF HORACE.

OH, come with me to the Happy Isles

In the golden haze off yonder,

Where the song of the sun-kissed breeze beguiles, And the ocean loves to wander.

Fragrant the vines that mantle those hills,

Proudly the fig rejoices;

Merrily dance the virgin rills,
Blending their myriad voices.

Our herds shall fear no evil there,
But peacefully feed and rest them;
Neither shall serpent or prowling bear
Ever come there to molest them.

Neither shall Eurus, wanton bold,
Nor feverish drouth distress us,
But he that compasseth heat and cold

Shall temper them both to bless us.

There no vandal foot has trod,

And the pirate hosts that wander Shall never profane the sacred sod

Of those beautiful Isles out yonder.

Never a spell shall blight our vines,
Nor Sirius blaze above us,

But

you and I shall drink our wines

And sing to the loved that love us.

So come with me where Fortune smiles

And the gods invite devotion,

Oh, come with me to the Happy Isles

In the haze of that far-off ocean!

DUTCH LULLABY.

WYNKEN, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe,

Sailed on a river of misty light

Into a sea of dew.

"Where are you going, and what do

The old moon asked the three.

"We have come to fish for the herring-fish

That live in this beautiful sea;

Nets of silver and gold have we,"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,

And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sung a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew;

The little stars were the herring-fish

That lived in the beautiful sea.