Love-Songs of Childhood

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"></SPAN></p> <h2> SHUFFLE-SHOON AND AMBER-LOCKS </h2> <p>Shuffle-shoon and Amber-Locks<br/> Sit together, building blocks;<br/> Shuffle-Shoon is old and gray,<br/> Amber-Locks a little child,<br/> But together at their play<br/> Age and Youth are reconciled,<br/> And with sympathetic glee<br/> Build their castles fair to see.<br/> "When I grow to be a man"<br/> (So the wee one's prattle ran),<br/> "I shall build a castle so&mdash;<br/> With a gateway broad and grand;<br/> Here a pretty vine shall grow,<br/> There a soldier guard shall stand;<br/> And the tower shall be so high,<br/> Folks will wonder, by and by!"<br/> Shuffle-Shoon quoth: "Yes, I know;<br/> Thus I builded long ago!<br/> Here a gate and there a wall,<br/> Here a window, there a door;<br/> Here a steeple wondrous tall<br/> Riseth ever more and more!<br/> But the years have leveled low<br/> What I builded long ago!"<br/> So they gossip at their play,<br/> Heedless of the fleeting day;<br/> One speaks of the Long Ago<br/> Where his dead hopes buried lie;<br/> One with chubby cheeks aglow<br/> Prattleth of the By and By;<br/> Side by side, they build their blocks&mdash;<br/> Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />