Chapter XXI

When the bell sounds
Over land and sea,
And the wind, in its rounds,
Blowing fresh and free,
Carries the ringing
Far out of sight,
There where the clinging
Sails are white,
White on the sea;
And over the hills.

How far does the sound
Of the sweet bell go?
Over the round
Where the waters flow,
And up to the bound
Where the winds can blow.
Is it lost, is it found,
Is it gone, do you know?

Nonsense Rhymes

NONSENSE RHYMES

TUESDAY

Carry and Kate
Swallowed a slate:
David and Dick
Lived in a stick:
Hetty and Helen
Said, “Oh, what a dwelling!”

Patty and Prue
Took baths in a flue:
Nathan and Ned
Caught fish in their bed:
Nothing could hide ’em,
And Dorothy fried ’em:
This was on Tuesday,
Which always was news day.

JOLLY JACK

“If black was white,
And white was black,
I would swallow a light
And live in a sack,
And swim on a kite,”--
Says jolly Jack.

THE DUCK AND HER DUCKLINGS

There was an old duck which had three little ducks,
Three little ducklings, chuck, chuck, chucks!
She took them for a walk,
And she march’d them back,
And taught them how to say,
“Quack, quack, quack!”

The ducklings went behind, and the duck went before,
Three ducks and one duck, that made four:

A duckling is a duck, if I know white from black,
But a duck is not a duckling, though,
“Quack, quack, quack!”

This duck was genteel, and she walk’d with great state,
Then cried, “Now, ducklings, mark my gait,
So much, you see, depends on the style of the back;”
And the ducklings said, “Yes, mamma,
Quack, quack, quack!”

LITTLE BEN BUTE

O little Ben Bute
Had a flute, flute, flute,
And went about the world in a knickerbocker suit;
Down, up and down,
And round about the town,
He played and he played tootle-too, toot, toot!
_Tootle-too, tootle-too-ey!_

He could not play it well,
So the notes rose and fell,
Tootle, tootle-too, with a twirl and a squeak;
The wind, puff, puff,
Was forty times enough,
That he sent into the flute from his cheek, cheek, cheek,
_Tootle-too, tootle-too-ey!_

Then people to the lad
Said, “This is very bad!
Our ears they are splitting, with your toot, toot, toot;
Is there no one within reach--
What, no one!--who will teach
Little Bute how to play upon the flute, flute, flute?”
_Tootle-too, tootle-too-ey!_

THE DREAM OF A GIRL WHO LIVED AT SEVEN-OAKS

Seven sweet singing birds up in a tree;
Seven swift sailing-ships white upon the sea;
Seven bright weather-cocks shining in the sun;
Seven slim race-horses ready for a run;
Seven gold butterflies, flitting overhead;
Seven red roses blowing in a garden bed;
Seven white lilies, with honey bees inside them;
Seven round rainbows with clouds to divide them;
Seven pretty little girls with sugar on their lips;
Seven witty little boys, whom everybody tips;
Seven nice fathers, to call little maids joys;
Seven nice mothers, to kiss the little boys;
Seven nights running I dreamt it all plain;
With bread and jam for supper I could dream it all again!

THE DREAM OF A BOY WHO LIVED AT NINE-ELMS

Nine grenadiers, with bayonets in their guns;
Nine bakers’ baskets, with hot cross-buns;
Nine brown elephants, standing in a row;
Nine new velocipedes, good ones to go;
Nine knickerbocker suits, with buttons all complete;
Nine pair of skates with straps for the feet;
Nine clever conjurors eating hot coals;
Nine sturdy mountaineers leaping on their poles;
Nine little drummer-boys beating on their drums;
Nine fat aldermen sitting on their thumbs;
Nine new knockers to our front door;
Nine new neighbours that I never saw before;
Nine times running I dreamt it all plain;
With bread and cheese for supper I could dream it all again!

FOUR LITTLE HISTORIES

I

There was an old man, and he had an old gun,
And he went to a cake shop, and aimed at a bun;
The bullet it shot the old baker’s old cat,
“Stop thief!” says the baker, “why, what are you at?”

II

Jack and Joe were tinmen,
And oh, but they were thin men!
Bags of bones,
Or bags of stones,--
I think they couldn’t have _been_ men!

III

Sarah Page,
In a rage,
Drest in satin;
Bertha Newry,
Learning Latin,
In a fury,
Drest in silk,
And lapping milk--
Which is best? Oh, what a bother!
Neither one nor yet the other.