THE LOST SHOE

Poor little Lucy

By some mischance,

Lost her shoe

As she did dance -

‘ Twas not on the stairs,

Not in the hall;

Not where they sat

At supper at all.

She looked in the garden,

But there it was not;

Henhouse, or kennel,

Or high dovecote.

Dairy and meadow,

And wild woods through

Showed not a trace

Of Lucy's shoe.

Bird nor bunny

Nor glimmering moon

Breathed a whisper

Of where‘ twas gone.

It was cried and cried,

Oyez and Oyez!

In French, Dutch, Latin,

And Portuguese.

Ships the dark seas

Went plunging through,

But none brought news

Of Lucy's shoe;

And still she patters

In silk and leather,

O'er snow, sand, shingle,

In every weather;

Spain, and Africa,

Hindustan,

Java, China,

And lamped Japan;

Plain and desert,

She hops-hops through,

Pernambuco

To gold Peru;

Mountain and forest,

And river too,

All the world over

For her lost shoe.