6. THE OLD CHIMNEYPIECE.

Outside fall the snowflakes lightly Through the night, loud raves the storm In my room the fire glows brightly, And ’tis cosy, silent, warm. Musing sit I on the settle By the firelight’s cheerful blaze, Listening to the busy kettle Humming long-forgotten lays. And beside me sits a kitten, Warming at the blaze her feet; Strangely are my senses smitten As the flickering flames they meet. Many a dim long-buried story O’er me soon begins to rise, But with dead and faded glory, And in strange and mask’d disguise. Lovely women with shrewd faces Greet me with a secret smile, Then the harlequins run races, Laughing merrily the while. Distant marble-gods nod kindly, Dreamily beside them grow Fable-flow’rs, whose leaves wave blindly In the moonlight to and fro. Magic castles, once resplendent, Ruin’d now, in sight appear; Knights in armour, squires attendant Quickly follow in their rear. All these visions I discover As with shadowy haste they pass,— Ah, the kettle’s boiling over, And the kitten’s burnt, alas!