Once Upon a Time and Other Child-Verses. Freeman Mary Eleanor Wilkins

      CLING, clang, – "Whoa, my bonny gray

      mare!

      Whoa," – cling, clang, – "my bay!

      But the black and the sorrel must stay unshod,

      While my two fair sons are away."

      While the blacksmith spake, his fair sons

      came,

      And stood in the smithy door —

      "Now where have ye been, my two fair sons,

      For your father has missed ye sore? "

      Then pleasantly spake the younger son,

      With the eyes of dreamy blue:

      "O Father, we've been in a land as bright

      As the glint o' the morning dew! "

      Then his brother twinkled his gay black eyes,

      And he spake up merry and bold:

      "Hey, Father, we've been in the fairy land,

      Where the horses are shod wi' gold!"

      "An' what did ye there in Fairyland,

      O my two fair sons, I pray?"

      "We shod for them, Father, their fairy steeds,

      All in a month an' a day.

      "An', Father, we shod them wi' virgin gold;

      Each nail had a diamond head;

      All the steeds were as white as the clear moon-

      light,

      An' in fields o' lilies they fed."

      "An' what was the sum o' the fairy hire,

      O my two fair sons, I pray?"

      "A seed of a wonderful fairy flower,

      They gave to us each for pay! "

      "An' what will ye do wi' the seeds, fair

      sons?"

      "We will sow i' the light, green spring,

      An' maybe a golden rose will toss,

      Or a silver lily will swing."

      "Now," – cling, clang, – "whoa, my bonny

      gray mare!

      Whoa," – cling, clang, – "my bay!

      An' the sorrel an' black, now my sons are

      back,

      Can be shod " – cling, clang, – "to-day."

      Oh! the smith's sons planted the fairy seeds

      When the light, green spring came round,

      Through the sunlit hours, 'twixt the April

      showers,

      In the best of the garden ground.

      Then the white rains wove with the long

      light-beams,

      Till a stalk, like a slim green flame,

      Pierced the garden mould: a leaf unrolled;

      And another beside it came.

      Then the brothers tended their fairy plants

      Till they shot up brave and tall,

      And the leaves grew thick. "Now soon shall

      we pick

      A rose like a golden ball;

      "Or else we shall see a lily, maybe,

      With a bell o' bright silver cast,"

      They thought; and they cried with joy and

      When the blossom-buds shaped at last.

      "Now, heyday!" shouted the elder son,

      And he danced in the garden walk,

      "A hat I will buy, as a steeple high,

      An' the neighbors will stare an' talk.

      "Heyday! I will buy me a brave gold chain,

      An' a waistcoat o' satin fine,

      A ruff o' lace, an' a pony an' chaise,

      An' a bottle o' red old wine!"

      But his brother looked up in the blue spring

      sky,

      And his yellow curls shone in the sun —

      "O joy! If I hold but my fairy gold,

      My father's toil is done!

      "He shall hammer no more with his tired

      old hands,

      He shall shoe not the bay nor the gray;

      But shall live as he please, an' sit at his ease,

      A-resting the livelong day."

      Alas, and alas! When it came to pass

      That the bud to a flower was grown,

      It was pallid and green, – no blossom so mean

      In the country side was known.

      Then angrily hurried the elder son,

      And hustled his up by the root;

      And it gave out a sound, as it left the ground,

      Like the shriek of a fairy flute.

      But he flung it over the garden wall;

      And he cried, with a scowling brow:

      "No waistcoat fine, an' no bottle o' wine —

      I have labored for naught, I trow! "

      "Now," – cling, clang, – "whoa,my bonny

      gray mare!

      Cling, clang, – "whoa, my bay!

      But the sorrel an' white must wait to-night,

      For one son sulks