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I THEY wheel’d me up the snow-clear’d garden way, | |
| And left me where the dazzling heaps were thrown; | |
| And as I mused on winter sports once known, | |
| Up came a tiny man to where I lay. | |
| He was six inches high; his beard was grey | 5 |
| As silver frost; his coat and cap were brown, | |
| Of mouse’s fur; while two wee skates hung down | |
| From his wee belt, and gleam’d in winter’s ray. | |
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| He clamber’d up my couch, and eyed me long. | |
| ‘Show me thy skates,’ said I; ‘for once, alas! | 10 |
| I too could skate. What pixie mayst thou be?’ | |
| ‘I am the king’, he answered, ‘of the throng | |
| Called Winter Elves. We live in roots, and pass | |
| The summer months asleep. Frost sets us free.’ | |
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II ‘WE find by moonlight little pools of ice, | 15 |
| Just one yard wide,’ the imp of winter said; | |
| ‘And skate all night, while mortals are in bed, | |
| In tiny circles of our elf device; | |
| And when it snows we harness forest mice | |
| To wee bark sleighs, with lightest fibrous thread, | 20 |
| And scour the woods; or play all night instead | |
| With snowballs large as peas, well patted thrice. | |
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| But is it true, as I have heard them say, | |
| That thou canst share in winter games no more, | |
| But liest motionless, year in, year out? | 25 |
| That must be hard. To-day I cannot stay, | |
| But I’ll return each year, when all is hoar, | |
| And tell thee when the skaters are about.’ | |
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