SEVEN TIMES ONE
Reading edition
By Jean Ingelow
There's no dew left on the daisies and clover, There's no rain left in heaven; I've said my "seven times" over and over— Seven times one are seven.
I am so old, so old I can write a letter; My birthday lessons are done; The lambs play always, they know no better; They are only one times one.
O moon! in the night I have seen you sailing And shining so round and low; You were bright! ah, bright! but your light is failing— You are nothing now but a bow.
You moon, have you done something wrong in heaven, That God has hidden your face? I hope if you have you will soon be forgiven, And shine again in your place.
O velvet bee, you're a dusty fellow, You've powdered your legs with gold! O brave marsh marybuds, rich and yellow, Give me your money to hold!
O columbine, open your folded wrapper, Where two twin turtledoves dwell! O cuckoopint, toll me the purple clapper That hangs in your clear green bell!
And show me your nest with the young ones in it; I will not steal them away; I am old! you may trust me, linnet, linnet— I am seven times one to-day.
SHUFFLE-SHOON AND AMBER-LOCKS [Footnote: From 'Love Songs of Childhood'. Copyright, 1894, by Eugene Field, published by Charles Scribner's Sons.]
By Eugene Field
Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks Sit together, building blocks; Shuffle-Shoon is old and gray, Amber-Locks a little child.
But together at their play Age and Youth are reconciled, And with sympathetic glee Build their castles fair to see.
"When I grow to be a man," (So the wee one's prattle ran), "I shall build a castle so— With a gateway broad and grand; Here a pretty vine shall grow, There a soldier guard shall stand; And the tower shall be so high, Folks will wonder, by and by!"
Shuffle-Shoon quoth: "Yes, I know; Thus I builded long ago! Here a gate and there a wall, Here a window, there a door; Here a steeple wondrous tall Riseth ever more and more! But the years have leveled low What I builded long ago!"
So they gossip at their play, Heedless of the fleeting day; One speaks of the Long Ago Where his dead hopes buried lie; One with chubby cheeks aglow Prattleth of the By-and-By; Side by side, they build their blocks— Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks.
AFTERWHILE [Footnote: From the poem to Afterwhiles by James Whitcomb Riley. Used by special permission of the publishers—The Bobbs-Merrill Company.]
By James Whitcomb Riley
Afterwhile we have in view The old home to journey to: Where the Mother is, and where Her sweet welcome waits us there. How we'll click the latch that locks In the pinks and hollyhocks, And leap up the path once more Where she waits us at the door; How we'll greet the dear old smile And the warm tears—afterwhile.