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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75390 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Songs of the Shining Way.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+                               SONGS OF THE
+                               SHINING WAY
+
+                                    BY
+                                  SARAH
+                                NOBLE-IVES
+
+                                   WITH
+                                 PICTURES
+                                  BY THE
+                                  AUTHOR
+
+                                 NEW YORK
+                              R. H. RUSSELL
+
+                                   1899
+
+                             Copyright, 1899
+                        _By_ ROBERT HOWARD RUSSELL]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: To EDNA CHAFFEE NOBLE.
+
+
+    For her who dared to take the girl
+      Half-formed and careless to her heart,
+    I write these simple childish rhymes,
+      That she may have that early part,
+    The baby that she might not see,
+    The childhood fancies missed in me.
+
+                                    S. N.-I.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: CONTENTS]
+
+
+                                     Page
+
+    ON THE SHINING WAY                  9
+
+    THE BEGINNING                      11
+
+    FIRST STAGE OF THE JOURNEY         13
+
+    AN EARLY START                     15
+
+    THE BUTTERFLY                      17
+
+    THE MOON                           18
+
+    THE MERCHANT SHIP                  19
+
+    BARN-DOOR INN                      20
+
+    BY COACH                           22
+
+    THRO’ FAIRY LAND                   24
+
+    BIRD’S-NEST HOLLOW                 27
+
+    A SORROW                           29
+
+    THE RAINBOW                        31
+
+    HORSE-BACK                         33
+
+    AN OCEAN VOYAGE                    35
+
+    THE DRAGON-FLY                     37
+
+    A HALT FOR PROVENDER               40
+
+    THRO’ THE CORNFIELD                42
+
+    THE HALO                           44
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ON THE SHINING WAY.]
+
+
+    All through the happy Childhood land
+      They travel the Shining Way,
+    The children fresh from the dawn of life,
+      With never a thought but play.
+
+    There’s never a care ’neath the shining hair
+      Where the sunrise stores its beams;
+    The wind that blows is the wind of morn
+      From the shore of the Sea of Dreams.
+
+    There’s no other way so glad and sweet,
+      And no other sky so blue,
+    And the joy of the road to the children is
+      That nothing but dreams come true.
+
+    There are great dream meadows and purple hills
+      That only the children know;
+    They can tell where the tall dream cities rise,
+      And the sweet dream flowers grow.
+
+    So on they pass by the milestone years,
+      To the land where the grown folks stay,
+    And only once is the journey made
+      On the wonderful Shining Way.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BEGINNING.]
+
+
+    Here is the beginning of the road;
+      And it’s morning on the hill-top in the sky;
+    And there’s mist across the valley to hide the Shining Way,
+    That’s full of other children and happy hours of play,
+      Where Dorothy will travel by and by.
+
+            The air is full of voices strange and sweet,
+            That crowd around her cradle as it swings.
+    She thinks they’re made of something white that shimmers on the grass,
+    For she doesn’t know a dew-drop from the bobolinks that pass,
+            And she doesn’t know a host of other things.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FIRST STAGE OF THE JOURNEY.]
+
+
+    Sing ho! for the road that opens down
+    Out of the sleepy old Baby Town.
+    Sing ho! for the joy of the Shining Way,
+    For Dorothy took her first steps to-day.
+
+    Mother has helped her alone to stand,
+    And now she is holding her dimpled hand,
+    And now there’s a start and a tipsy run,
+    And life on the road is well begun.
+
+    There’s a tear in the midst of Mother’s smiles,
+    But Mother will lead her the first few miles.
+    So let her start on her journey gay.
+    Sing ho! for the joy of the Shining Way.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN EARLY START.]
+
+
+    The dark had not unwrapped the skies
+    When I awoke, and rubbed my eyes.
+    The world was full of chirping birds,
+    I heard their soft, half-sleepy words.
+    I tiptoed softly on the floor,
+    I slipped the bolt, stole thro’ the door,
+    And lo! a wondrous world of gray
+    And silver mist before me lay.
+
+    The white dews wet my small bare feet,
+    As I ran thro’ the meadows, sweet
+    With clover nodding all about,
+    And sleepy hum-bees creeping out.
+
+    And then a strange thing came to pass;
+    The Sun was sleeping in the grass;
+    He must have wakened when I came,
+    For all at once a rosy flame
+    Peeped at me o’er a little mound,
+    And soon the bright Sun, warm and round
+    Was looking at me, smiling down
+    To see my little slumber-gown.
+
+    O fair the meadow was to see!
+    The blossoms laughed and spoke to me.
+    And drops like pearls in every place
+    Were hanging on the spider’s lace;
+    And little rainbows everywhere
+    Were dancing in the golden air;
+    And bees, and yellow butterflies,
+    And beetles, brown and big and wise,
+    Went buzzing, flying all about,
+    And busy ants ran in and out,
+    And songs were in the deep-blue sky,
+    —I could not see, they flew so high.
+
+    But all about these things I know,
+    Because the daisies whispered low,
+    And told me all they knew—much more
+    Than I had ever dreamed before.
+
+    And broad and white across the day
+    Before me ran the Shining Way.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BUTTERFLY.]
+
+
+    Butterfly, say, is it true,
+      All that the daisies have told?
+    Are those bright spots on your wings
+      Made out of rainbows and gold?
+    Did you come down on a beam
+      Of light that shot thro’ the blue?
+    Are you a piece of the sun?
+      Butterfly, say, is it true?
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MOON.]
+
+
+    Swim, white Moon, in the dusky blue,
+      Swim in the still dark sky.
+    Soft are the clouds that cover you;
+      And Jimmy and Alice and I
+    Some time, perhaps, a journey will make
+    Across the sea on your silver wake.
+
+    Swing, white Moon, to the breeze that blows
+      From the Milky Way so bright.
+    Alice told me (and Alice knows),
+      That I may climb up some night,
+    And swing in the cradle you make for me,
+    Higher than even the highest tree.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MERCHANT SHIP.]
+
+
+    Down by the side of the Shining Way
+        There’s a ship on the raging sea;
+    And she’s bearing a rich and royal load
+        Over the waves to me.
+
+    (There are cherries juicy and red and sweet,)
+        And when she has reached this side
+    The cargo’s mine, and the ship returns
+        To Jimmy across the tide.
+
+    If I blow right hard from my side of the sea
+        She steadily keeps her track;
+    And when she has travelled too far for me,
+    Jimmy will blow her back.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BARN-DOOR INN.]
+
+
+    We were tired of travel one afternoon,
+      And stopped at the sign of “The Great Barn-Door,”
+    And Jimmy and Alice took rooms in the loft,
+      While I had mine on the second floor.
+
+    Jimmy and Alice went climbing high
+      Over the rafters above my head,
+    And peeped thro’ the swallow-holes out at the sky.
+      —If Mother had seen them, what would she have said?
+
+    But I stayed down in the soft new hay,
+      And the sun crept in thro’ a yellow chink,
+    And a long beam found me out where I lay,
+      And tickled my eyes till it made them blink.
+
+    The dust-motes circled and whirled and danced,
+      And my pillow was soft and warm and deep,
+    And the hay smelled sweet, and it somehow chanced
+      That there in the mow I fell asleep.
+
+    And I dreamed a dream full of swallows’ wings,
+      And elfish motes in the dusty air,
+    And thousands of other wonderful things;
+      Till Jimmy and Alice found me there.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BY COACH.]
+
+
+    We’re traveling hard and fast to-day,—
+      Jimmy and Alice and me—
+    Bowling along on the Shining Way,
+      With a royal coach and three.
+
+    We laugh at the folk who are passing by,
+      Dragging their weary feet
+    Deep in the dust that our whizzing wheels
+      Have raised in the flying street.
+
+    Fields and forests flit out of sight;
+      And if all goes just as we planned
+    We’ll travel on till we reach the bars
+      At the entrance to Fairy Land.
+
+    And what is the coach on our lordly quest?
+      And where are the foaming three?
+    Why, the coach is the dump-cart, and the rest—
+      Just Jimmy and Alice and me.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THRO’ FAIRYLAND.]
+
+
+    It was dark when we stopped at the Fairy-Land bars,
+    And over our heads there were millions of stars;
+    And I was quite frightened, but Jimmy looked bold,
+    And Alice just shivered—she said it was cold.
+
+    We timidly knocked, and then, just as I feared
+    They would not let us in, lo! the bars disappeared,
+    And the stars dropped right down from the sky, and behold!
+    Each one was a lamp for a fairy to hold.
+
+    And the fairies went dancing like leaves in the wind,
+    And beckoned to us as we crept on behind;
+    And queer little faces, brimful of surprise,
+    Looked out of the darkness with queer little eyes.
+
+    But O the sweet fairies! I never could tell
+    Of the rose-hues we saw in that wonderful dell—
+    The daffodil-yellow, the purple and green,
+    But the sweetest of all was the lily-white Queen.
+
+    They sang of the land of the Sugary Dews,
+    Where children may eat a whole pie, if they choose;
+    A wonderful land, which some day we shall see,
+    If the Shining Way leads us—Jim, Alice and me.
+
+    O we shouted with glee! and then to our surprise
+    The stars drifted back again into the skies,
+    The fairies all vanished, I covered my head,—
+    And when I looked up, we were all three in bed.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BIRD’S-NEST HOLLOW.]
+
+
+      There is something puzzles me.—
+      In the hollow apple-tree,
+    Where the Shining Way is broadest, there’s a nest;
+      Two fat Robins live in it,
+      In and out I see them flit,
+    And the biggest wears a gorgeous crimson vest.
+
+      We are friends, and so when I
+      Come to look, they do not fly,
+    But they chatter from the branches of the tree;
+      And I run down there to play,
+      When the sun shines, every day,
+    And next year they say they’ll build a nest for me.
+
+      I peeped in one day, and found
+      Five small eggs, all blue and round,
+    And the Robins made me promise not to tell.
+      For (they said that this was so)
+      Jim and Alice must not know.
+    So I promised, and I’ve kept the secret well.
+
+      When to-day I climbed the tree,
+      Those two birds had company;
+    There were five small squirming children in the nest;
+      And the Robins whispered me,
+      ’Twas a case of charity,
+    For the poor wee birdies were not even dressed.
+
+      And those little wriggling things
+      Had big mouths, but wore no wings,
+    And the Robins served refreshments down the row.
+      But the eggs are gone, you see;
+      That’s the thing that puzzles me.
+    Did those small birds eat them up, I’d like to know?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A SORROW.]
+
+
+    The White Rat died last night.
+      We found him cold and stiff;
+    We wrapped him warm and tight.
+      In my best handkerchief.
+
+    Jimmy marched on before,
+      Bearing the poor dead Rat;
+    Alice deep mourning wore,
+      I had papa’s silk hat.
+
+    Jimmy the sermon preached,
+      Alice and I just cried.
+    That was a noble speech,
+      Worthy the Rat that died.
+
+    We made him a tiny grave.
+      Down in the shadow dim
+    Where the willow hedge-rows wave
+      We solemnly buried him.
+
+    Jimmy and Alice and I
+      Went sadly back to our play.
+    But there’s a cloud in the sky,
+      And a shade on the Shining Way.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE RAINBOW.]
+
+
+    Storm-clouds and thunder and dark rainy weather,
+      Wet streams are flowing all down the Shining Way;
+    Jimmy and Alice and I are here together,
+      Cooped in the nursery and longing for a play.
+
+    Look! there’s a sunbeam, through a sky-crack poking;
+      Quick! get your shoes off, as still as still can be;
+    Slip out the back door, Mother isn’t looking,
+      Steal down the wood-road, before she turns to see.
+
+    Great jolly puddles, round and wet and gleaming—
+      Here’s a still clear one, grassy, cool and sweet;
+    But we love the brown ones, and in we paddle, screaming,
+      Laughing, while the soft mud oozes ’round our feet.
+
+    Trees shake their wet cloaks, and on us falls a shower;
+      We laugh the louder, as down the road we run.
+    See! there’s a cowslip, and here’s a fairies’ bower,
+      All made of violets, nodding to the sun.
+
+    Down in the East, where we still can hear the thunder,
+      Over the cloud bends a misty, shining Bow.
+    Right at the foot of it are hidden many wonders,
+      If we can get there before the colors go.
+
+    Run, hand in hand, then, hair all a-dripping,
+      Bare feet splashing thro’ the puddles as we fly.
+    Soft shines the Rainbow, as toward it we are tripping;
+      The green earth is waving and smiling to the sky.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HORSE-BACK.]
+
+
+    Jimmy and Alice and I one day,
+      Were filled with a sudden pride;
+    No more would we walk on the Shining Way,
+      ’Twas pleasanter, far, to ride.
+
+    For Billy, the old white horse, was there,
+      He could easily carry three,
+    And on his back we would gaily fare
+      To the shores of the Sunset Sea.
+
+    So up to the orchard fence we tripped,
+      And Billy looked kind and mild,
+    And on to his back we softly slipped,
+      And Billy, he sort of smiled.
+
+    I sat in the middle and clung to Jim,
+      And Alice was out by the tail;
+    And “Get up, Billy!” we said to him,
+      And away we went in a gale.
+
+    But we never got to the Sunset Sea,
+      With its fiery waves aglow,
+    For we didn’t count on the old plum-tree,
+      And Billy, he did, you know.
+
+    Oh, Billy looked kind and mild enough,
+      But a plot in his heart did hide;
+    He knew that the plum-tree bark was rough,
+      And the branches were low and wide.
+
+    So straight for the tree old Billy steered,
+      And vainly we shouted “Whoa!”
+    His mind was fixed, and he never veered
+      From the path where he meant to go.
+
+    Under the tree he firmly trod,
+      (’Twas just high enough for him,)
+    And we went tumbling on the sod.
+      Scraped off by a scraggly limb.
+
+    No more we rode on the Shining Way;
+      We were bruised, and our thoughts were sad;
+    While Billy winked, as he looked our way;
+      And his wink was knowing and bad.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN OCEAN VOYAGE.]
+
+
+    There’s an ocean wide we must cross to-day,
+    For it stretches across the Shining Way.
+    A board will make us a famous boat;
+    Hurrah! for the high seas. We’re afloat!
+
+    Alice will pilot across the waves,
+    Jimmy and I are the galley-slaves;
+    We bend to the broomstick instead of the oar,
+    And Alice steers for the further shore.
+
+    Carefully on our course we keep
+    Over the trackless and rolling deep.
+    Under our vessel slowly swim
+    Minnows, tadpoles and monsters grim.
+    (Fishes we know, but have never seen,)
+    And a bull-frog croaks from the rushes green.
+
+    The journey near to an end has grown,
+    When Alice’s rudder strikes a stone.
+    A lurch—a scramble—a sudden scream,
+    And over we go in the wet, wet stream.
+
+    Alice is dripping, and so am I;
+    Water has got into Jimmy’s eye;
+    But land is reached—we are safe, though cold.
+    And we wonder if Mother may chance to scold?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE DRAGON-FLY.]
+
+
+    Where the Shining Way leads on,
+    Thro’ the garden, o’er the lawn,
+    Past the road and down the hill,
+    There’s a place so strange and still,
+    Nothing like the world we see
+    Every morning, you and me.
+    There we found a little pond
+    Edged with rushes, and beyond
+    Grow the marshes, green and high.
+    Wild rice climbing to the sky,
+    Fragrant flag and iris beds
+    Fringed with purple arrow-heads.
+
+    Little moving waves of air
+    Quiver o’er the grasses fair;
+    On the shining water blue
+    Broad round leaves are shining too;
+    Lilies, dreaming in the sun—
+    From the bank I peeped in one,
+    And the petals, wide apart,
+    Showed a sun within its heart.
+    And the rushes tall and free,
+    Like a forest seemed to me,
+    With the rice-trees waving ’round.
+    But the silence! Not a sound!
+    Very still the lilies lay
+    In the golden summer day.
+
+    Sudden, from the wide blue sky,
+    Whirred a monster Dragon-Fly.
+    Proudly, all alone he came,
+    Armor polished to a flame
+    On his body, and his wings,
+    Gauzy, wondrous, shining things,
+    Seemed to catch the water’s blue,
+    And the yellow sunbeams, too.
+    He’s a hermit, and the spot
+    We had found, it seems, was not
+    All our own, for here he lives
+    On the sweet the iris gives,
+    And each day he sallies forth,
+    East and west and south and north,
+    Tilting like a tourney knight,
+    Putting all his foes to flight.
+
+    Never dares a grasshopper
+    Or a cricket there to stir,
+    While the water-bugs at play,
+    When they see him, scud away.
+    And his duty is to keep
+    Sentry, while the lilies sleep.
+    So that every harmful thing,
+    Bats that bite, and gnats that sting,
+    Crawling worm and robber bee
+    From his shining lance must flee.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A HALT FOR PROVENDER.]
+
+
+    We made our little garden-plots before the spring was passed,
+    And Jimmy, he raised radishes, because they grow so fast;
+    And Alice planted flower-seeds, to beautify the ground,
+    But I chose cabbages—they grow so grand and great and round.
+
+    And Jimmy’s garden flourished—he had a splendid crop,
+    All round and red below the ground, and broad and green on top.
+    One day he pulled and ate them all—with salt they’re very good—
+    Then Jimmy gave up gardening—but that is understood.
+
+    And Alice’s sweet peas and things were beautifully fair,
+    But Tim, the gardener, smiled one day, to see them growing there,
+    But what he said was, “Faix, Miss Alice, thim was rare foine sades,
+    But ye’ve murthered ivery blissed wan, an’ only lift the wades.”
+
+    Well, cabbage-raising does not pay, my garden is a fright.
+    There came a Morning-Glory Vine, and like a thief last night
+    He stole along my pretty rows, and this is what he’s done:
+    He’s twined around my cabbage plants, and pulled them every one,
+    And hung them with their roots to dry, like clothes upon a line—
+    Just spoiled my little garden-plot—that wicked ’Glory Vine.
+
+    And that is why we do not care for gardening to-day;
+    The crops are very poor this year, and kites are better play.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THRO’ THE CORNFIELD.]
+
+
+    There’s a forest thro’ which we went to-day,
+      Waving and green and high,
+    With feathery tassels tall and gay
+      Nodding against the sky;
+    The place of all others for fairy tales,
+      And plays of the years gone by.
+
+    And this is the game we children played—
+      I was an Ogre grim,
+    Alice the Princess that fell asleep
+      Down in the forest dim,
+    And the Prince who wakened her with a kiss
+      When he found her—that was Jim.
+
+    The Prince came riding so proud and bold
+      On a prancing corn-stalk steed,
+    And many a blade was thrust at him,
+      But little did Jimmy heed;
+    And long vines plucked him to hold him back
+      From doing that daring deed.
+
+    The Ogre leaped from its hiding-place,
+      With a menace fierce and grim,
+    And a big green pumpkin kept the door,
+      And scowled and leered at him;
+    But he bravely charged and routed his foes
+      With his trusty “Cherry-Limb.”
+
+    The corn-blades dropped on their bended joints,
+      But vainly for mercy pled,
+    The pumpkin yielded, the Ogre turned
+      With a horrible shriek and fled,
+    The Princess was duly kissed, and so
+      Sweet Alice and Jim were wed.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE HALO.]
+
+
+    There’s a picture of an angel, hanging on our study wall,
+    A lovely angel with white wings, and very grand and tall;
+    Around about her head there is a shining golden ring,
+    And I asked Jimmy why she wore that funny yellow thing;
+    And Jimmy laughed and said to me; “Why, silly, don’t you know?
+    That’s nothing but a saint-hole; all angels have them so.
+    The Shining Way runs through it, straight to her heavenly home,
+    And when she’s tired of the earth, she calls to God to come;
+    He reaches down and pulls her through, before you can count seven,
+    And you can’t see her any more, because she is in Heaven.”
+
+    I don’t quite understand it, the thought is very new;
+    But if I had a saint-hole, I’d go to Heaven too.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75390 ***