Berries & Blossoms :: :: University of Virginia Library

What's the Baby thinking of?
Can you guess? Can you guess?
From between the budding leaves,
Underneath the cottage eaves,
Came an answer, “Yes, yes, yes!”

“In the meadow,” chirp'd the Swallow,
“I was flying, all the day;
I saw Baby in the clover,
Toddling, tumbling, rolling over,
In his merry play.

Hiding in each grassy hollow,
Out of nurse's way.

“'Midst the buttercups I saw him;
He was humming like the bee,
And the daisies seem'd to draw him,
For he crow'd to see
All their white and pinky faces,
Starring over the green places,
'Neath the poplar tree.
And the butterfly that pleased him,
And the maybloom, out of reach,
And the little breeze that teased him,
He is thinking now of each.
Search his eyes, and you shall see
King-cups, mesh'd in golden mazes,
And a thousand starry daisies,
And a sunbeam, flashing free,
And a little shifting shadow,
Such as flutter'd o'er the meadow,
From the fluttering tree.

Kiss his lip, and taste the rare
Honey-sweetness lingering on it;
Kiss his pretty forehead fair,
Maybloom odours dropp'd upon it;
And the naughty breeze also—
Kiss his cheek, and you shall find it
In the rich and rosy glow,
And the freshness left behind it.
On all these doth Baby ponder,
And they wile him forth to wander
Still, through fields of scented clover,
Toddling, tumbling, rolling over;
Hiding in each grassy hollow.”
Thus, between the budding leaves,
Underneath the cottage eaves,
Answer made our friend the Swallow.