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Number one Joy Street

POEMS By ROSE FYLEMAN

Reading edition

GOSSIP

“Trains are all the fashion,”

Said the fairy in the tree.

“They’ll catch upon the brambles

When we go for moonlight scrambles,

And then where shall we be?”

“At the caterpillar’s wedding,”

Said the pixie in the moss,

“The dewdrops were so fizzy

That all the guests went dizzy.

The Queen was very cross.”

“The weather clerk’s gone crazy,”

Said the brownie in the fern,

“And all the kinds of weather

Have got mixed up together.

They don’t know where to turn!”

180“It’s nothing else but temper,”

Said the nixie in the pool;

“They’ve hung him on a spire

With a little bit of wire

And left him there to cool.”

“But have you heard the latest?”

Said the goblin in the ditch.

“Young Puck has changed the dresses

Of the little twin princesses,

And they don’t know which is which!”

Rose Fyleman.

181

Illustration from Number one Joy Street: a medley of prose & verse for boys and girls

“Have you heard the latest?”

182

CLOUDS

I saw a lady in the sky to-day;

Her fleecy, floating skirts were long and wide,

Her arms were crossed, her head was turned away,

She had a dragon at her side:

A big grey dragon pawing in the air,

His curly tail went sweeping to the ground,

His mouth was open and his teeth were bare,

But he made no sound.

I turned to watch a butterfly go by,

And when I looked again where they had been—

The lady and the dragon in the sky—

They were not to be seen.

Rose Fyleman.

183

Illustration from Number one Joy Street: a medley of prose & verse for boys and girls

The lady and the dragon in the sky.

184

COUNTRY

I’LL give you an apple,

I’ll give you a pear,

And a bunch of red berries

To put in your hair;

A potful of honey,

A jugful of cream,

And a lavender cushion

To sweeten your dream.

✾

TOWN

I’ll give you an orange

As red as the sun,

A basket of goodies,

A bookful of fun,

A taffeta sunshade,

A bonnet of lace,

And a little French doll

With a porcelain face.

Rose Fyleman.

185

Illustration from Number one Joy Street: a medley of prose & verse for boys and girls

Country and Town.

186

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