<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class='center'>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poem and illustratoin">
<tr><td align='left'><ANTIMG src="images/i094a.png" width-obs="173" height-obs="144" alt="injured" title="" />
</td><td align='left'>And few but felt some portion sore,<br/>
From introductions to the floor.<br/>
But such mishaps were lost to sight,<br/>
Amid the common wild delight,—<br/>
For little plaint do Brownies make<br/>
O'er bump or bruise or even break.<br/></td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='poem'>
<br/>
But stars at length began to wane,<br/>
And dawn came creeping through the pane;<br/>
And much against the will of all,<br/>
The rogues were forced to leave the hall.<br/></div>
<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<h2>THE BROWNIES AT THE SEASIDE.</h2>
<div class='center'> <table class="seaside" summary="seaside">
<tr><td align='left'><br/><br/><br/><div class='poem'>
<span style="margin-left: 3em;">ithin a forest dark and wide,</span><br/>
Some distance from the ocean side,<br/>
A band of Brownies played around<br/>
On mossy stone or grassy mound,<br/>
Or, climbing through the branching tree,<br/>
Performed their antics wild and free.<br/></div>
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class='poem'>
When one, arising in his place<br/>
With sparkling eyes and beaming face<br/>
Soon won attention from the rest,<br/>
And thus the listening throng addressed:<br/>
"For years and years, through heat and cold,<br/>
Our home has been this forest old;<br/>
The saplings which we used to bend<br/>
Now like a schooner's masts ascend.<br/></div>
<div class='center'> <table class="bough" summary="bough">
<tr><td align='left'><div class='poem7'>
<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Yet here we live, content to ride</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: .5em;">A springing bough with childish pride,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Content to bathe in brook or bog</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Along with lizard, leech, and frog;</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: .5em;">We're far behind the age you'll find</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: .5em;">If once you note the human kind.</span><br/></div>
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class='poem2'>
The modern youths no longer lave<br/>
Their limbs beneath the muddy wave<br/>
Of meadow pool or village pond,<br/>
But seek the ocean far beyond.<br/></div>
<div class='poem'>
If pleasure in the sea is found<br/>
Not offered by the streams around,<br/>
The Brownie band at once should haste<br/></div>
<div class='center'> <table class="moon" summary="moon">
<tr><td align='left'>
<span style="margin-left: 18em;">These unfamiliar joys to taste;</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 20em;">No torch nor lantern's ray we'll need</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 21em;">To show our path o'er dewy mead,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 22em;">The ponds and pitfalls in the swale,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 23em;">The open ditch, the slivered rail,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24em;">The poison vine and thistle high</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">Show clear before the Brownie's</span><br/><span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">eye."</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 25em;">—Next evening, as their plan</span><br/><span style="margin-left: 25em;">they'd laid,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 25em;">The band soon gathered in the</span><br/><span style="margin-left: 25em;">shade.</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">All clustered like a swarm of</span><br/><span style="margin-left: 24.5em;">bees</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 23.5em;">They darted from the sheltering</span><br/><span style="margin-left: 23em;">trees;</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 22.5em;">And straight across the country wide</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 21.5em;">Began their journey to the tide.</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 20.5em;">And when they neared the beach at last,—</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 20em;">The stout, the lean, the slow, the fast,—</span><br/>
</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='poem'>
'T was hard to say, of all the lot,<br/>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</SPAN></span>Who foremost reached the famous spot.<br/></div>
<div class='poem2'>"And now," said one with active mind.<br/>
"What proper garments can we find?<br/>
In bathing costume, as you know,<br/>
The people in the ocean go."<br/></div>
<div class='poem'>
<br/>
Another spoke, "For such demands,<br/>
The building large that yonder stands,<br/></div>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i097.png" width-obs="519" height-obs="426" alt="Off they go" title="" /></div>
<div class='poem'>
As one can see on passing by,<br/>
Is full of garments clean and dry.<br/>
There every fashion, loose or tight,<br/>
We may secure with labor light."<br/>
<br/>
Though Brownies never carry keys,<br/>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</SPAN></span>They find an entrance where they please;<br/>
And never do they chuckle more<br/>
Than when some miser bars his door;<br/>
For well they know that, spite of locks,<br/></div>
<div class='center'> <table class="locks" summary="locks">
<tr><td align='left'><br/><br/>
Of rings and staples, bolts and blocks,<br/>
Were they inclined to play such prank<br/>
He'd find at morn an empty bank.<br/>
So now the crafty Brownie crew<br/>
Soon brought the bathing-suits to view;<br/>
Some, working on the inner side,<br/>
The waiting throng without supplied.—<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class='center'>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poem and illustration">
<tr><td align='left'>'Twas busy work, as may be guessed,<br/>
Before the band was fully dressed;<br/>
Some still had cloth enough to lend,<br/>
Though shortened up at either end;<br/>
Sortie ran about to find a pin,<br/>
While others rolled, and puckered in,<br/></td><td align='left'><ANTIMG src="images/i099a.png" width-obs="176" height-obs="111" alt="Brownie and crab" title="" />
</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='poem'>
And made the best of what they found,<br/>
However strange it hung around.<br/>
<br/>
Then, when a boat was manned with care<br/>
To watch for daring swimmers there,—<br/></div>
<div class='center'>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poem and illustration">
<tr><td align='left'><ANTIMG src="images/i099b.png" width-obs="248" height-obs="77" alt="Caught by crab" title="" />
</td><td align='left'>Lest some should venture, over-bold,<br/>
And fall a prey to cramp and cold,—<br/>
A few began from piers to leap<br/>
And plunge at once in water deep,<br/>
But more to shiver, shrink, and shout<br/></td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='poem'>
As step by step they ventured out;<br/>
While others were content to stay<br/>
In shallow surf, to duck and play<br/>
Along the lines that people laid<br/>
To give the weak and timid aid.<br/></div>
<div class='center'>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poem and illustration">
<tr><td align='left'>It was a sight one should behold,<br/>
When o'er the crowd the breakers rolled;—<br/>
One took a header through the wave,<br/>
One floated like a chip or stave,<br/>
While others there, at every plunge,<br/>
Were taking water like a sponge.<br/></td><td align='left'><ANTIMG src="images/i099c.png" width-obs="104" height-obs="124" alt="Brownie policeman chasing" title="" />
</td></tr>
</table></div>
<div class='center'>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poem and illustration">
<tr><td align='left'><ANTIMG src="images/i099d.png" width-obs="165" height-obs="119" alt="Caught by the hand" title="" />
</td><td align='left'>But while the surf they tumbled through,<br/>
They reckoned moments as they flew,<br/>
And kept in mind their homeward race<br/>
Before the sun should show his face.<br/></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i100.png" width-obs="515" height-obs="544" alt="At the shore" title="" /></div>
<div class='poem'>
For sad and painful is the fate<br/>
Of those who roam abroad too late;<br/>
And well may Brownies bear in mind<br/>
The hills and vales they leave behind,<br/>
When far from native haunts they run,<br/>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
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