For Christ's dear sake she makes with joy
An alms-gift of the silver toy--
A smiling angel of the child.

_Dublin University Magazine_



TO SOME BIRDS FLOWN AWAY.

_("Enfants! Oh! revenez!")_

[XXII, April, 1837]


Children, come back--come back, I say--
You whom my folly chased away
A moment since, from this my room,
With bristling wrath and words of doom!
What had you done, you bandits small,
With lips as red as roses all?
What crime?--what wild and hapless deed?
What porcelain vase by you was split
To thousand pieces? Did you need
For pastime, as you handled it,
Some Gothic missal to enrich
With your designs fantastical?
Or did your tearing fingers fall
On some old picture? Which, oh, which
Your dreadful fault? Not one of these;