Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/31



ILLIE and Bess, Georgie and May—

Once, as these children were hard at play,

An old man, hoary and tottering, came

And watched them playing their pretty game.

He seemed to wonder, while standing there,

What the meaning thereof could be—

Aha, but the old man yearned to share

Of the little children's innocent glee

As they circled around with laugh and shout

And told their rime at counting out:

"Intry-mintry, cutrey-corn,

Apple-seed and apple-thorn;

Wire, brier, limber, lock,

Twelve geese in a flock;

Some flew east, some flew west,

Some flew over the cuckoo's nest!"

Willie and Bess, Georgie and May—

Ah, the mirth of that summer-day!

'T was Father Time who had come to share

The innocent joy of those children there;