Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/93

 Harlequin

Then we heard the winds of winter on their brazen trumpets blow

The summons for the ballet of the nimble-footed snow,

And the flakes, all silver-spangled, through the mazy meas- ures wound,

Till each finished out his figure, and took station on the ground.

And the drifts, in shining armor, and with gem-encrusted shields,

Spread their wide-deployed battalions on the drill-ground of the fields,

Till the hillside shone and shimmered with the armies of the rime,

As the Frost King gave the signal for the Christmas panto- mime !

He spread a crystal carpet on the rush-encircled pond, And looped about with ermine all the hemlock-trees be- yond: He strung his gleaming icicles along the scowling

eaves,

And decked the barren branches of the oak with snowy leaves.