The Children's Hour (Birds Of Passage Flight The Second)

Between the dark and the daylight,

  When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day's occupations,

That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me

  The patter of little feet,

The sound of a door that is opened,

  And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,

  Descending the broad hall stair,

Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,

  And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:

  Yet I know by their merry eyes

They are plotting and planning together

  To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,

  A sudden raid from the hall!

By three doors left unguarded

  They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret

  O'er the arms and back of my chair;

If I try to escape, they surround me;

  They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,

  Their arms about me entwine,

Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

  In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, o blue-eyed banditti,

  Because you have scaled the wall,

Such an old mustache as I am

  Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,

  And will not let you depart,

But put you down into the dungeon

  In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,

  Yes, forever and a day,

Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,

  And moulder in dust away!