Katie Lee and Willie Grey

Two brown heads with tossing curls,

Red lips shutting over pearls,

Bare feet, white and wet with dew,

Two eyes black, and two eyes blue;

Little girl and boy were they,

Katie Lee and Willie Grey.

They were standing where a brook,

Bending like a shepherd's crook,

Flashed its silver, and thick ranks

Of willow fringed its mossy banks;

Half in thought, and half in play,

Katie Lee and Willie Grey.

They had cheeks like cherries red;

He was taller—'most a head;

She, with arms like wreaths of snow,

Swung a basket to and fro

As she loitered, half in play,

Chattering to Willie Grey.

"Pretty Katie," Willie said—

And there came a dash of red

Through the brownness of his cheek—

"Boys are strong and girls are weak,

And I'll carry, so I will,

Katie's basket up the hill."

Katie answered with a laugh,

"You shall carry only half";

And then, tossing back her curls,

"Boys are weak as well as girls."

Do you think that Katie guessed

Half the wisdom she expressed?

Men are only boys grown tall;

Hearts don't change much, after all;

And when, long years from that day,

Katie Lee and Willie Grey

Stood again beside the brook,

Bending like a shepherd's crook,—

Is it strange that Willie said,

While again a dash of red

Crossed the brownness of his cheek,

"I am strong and you are weak;

Life is but a slippery steep,

Hung with shadows cold and deep.

"Will you trust me, Katie dear,—

Walk beside me without fear?

May I carry, if I will,

All your burdens up the hill?"

And she answered, with a laugh,

"No, but you may carry half."

Close beside the little brook,

Bending like a shepherd's crook,

Washing with its silver hands

Late and early at the sands,

Is a cottage, where to-day

Katie lives with Willie Grey.

In a porch she sits, and lo!

Swings a basket to and fro—

Vastly different from the one

That she swung in years agone,

Thisis long and deep and wide,

And has—rockers at the side.