[from Collected Works, T.E.Brown]

FAILAND

HA, little one!
Would'st like a torrent run
That spurns the mountain steep,
And falls in thunder ? O, brave leap! brave leap!
'Twas excellently done.
Nay, I am not in fun !
You silly thing, that you should slink
And hide among the cresses ! only think
Pooh ! 'tis a very Nile ! there, there ! that's right !
Flash out again into the light!
Have at the biggest stone- — O, nobly meant!
I swear it was magnificent!

And thus I chaffed the stream, but I was wrong
He never dreamt of fountains
Rock-scooped in mighty mountains ;
He never made pretence
To power; but in his own sweet innocence
He danced, and sang thereto a simple song ;
And after that one frolic,
To sneer at which were well-nigh diabolic,
He sang it all day long.