IN A DREAM-SHIP

She sailed away one summer day In a ship of shining shell: Her cloak was a butterfly’s gauzy wing, Her bonnet a big blue-bell, Her bed was a lady’s slipper, Her blankets the leaves of a rose, And a cushion of thistledown had she, Just to rest her tiny toes. With golden oars from the earth’s dark shores She was borne o’er a silver sea; And she never feared as the captain steered For the land where she wished to be. And this was the song, As they drifted along, That she sang from the ship of shell— “Oh, we are bound For enchanted ground; It’s there that the fairies dwell.” But a storm swept over the silver sea, And the little maid awoke As against the side of the fair frail barque A cruel billow broke; And she rubbed her eyes, and she pinched her arm, And fearfully peeped around; But instead of a ship “for fairyland” She had boarded a “homeward-bound.”