TO JOSEPH JEFFERSON


_May 4th_, 1898.--_To-day, fishing down the Swiftwater, I
found Joseph Jefferson on a big rock in the middle of the brook,
casting the fly for trout. He said he had fished this very stream
three-and-forty years ago; and near by, in the Paradise Valley,
he wrote his famous play._--Leaf from my Diary.

We met on Nature's stage,
And May had set the scene,
With bishop-caps standing in delicate ranks,
And violets blossoming over the banks,
While the brook ran full between.

The waters rang your call,
With frolicsome waves a-twinkle,--
They knew you as boy, and they knew you as man,
And every wave, as it merrily ran,
Cried, "Enter Rip van Winkle!"



THE MOCKING-BIRD


In mirth he mocks the other birds at noon,