| |
| THE WELL was dry beside the door, | |
| And so we went with pail and can | |
| Across the fields behind the house | |
| To seek the brook if still it ran; | |
| |
| Not loth to have excuse to go, | 5 |
| Because the autumn eve was fair | |
| (Though chill) because the fields were ours, | |
| And by the brook our woods were there. | |
| |
| We ran as if to meet the moon | |
| That slowly dawned behind the trees, | 10 |
| The barren boughs without the leaves, | |
| Without the birds, without the breeze. | |
| |
| But once within the wood, we paused | |
| Like gnomes that hid us from the moon, | |
| Ready to run to hiding new | 15 |
| With laughter when she found us soon. | |
| |
| Each laid on other a staying hand | |
| To listen ere we dared to look, | |
| And in the hush we joined to make | |
| We heard—we knew we heard—the brook. | 20 |
| |
| A note as from a single place, | |
| A slender tinkling fall that made | |
| Now drops that floated on the pool | |
| Like pearls, and now a silver blade. | |
| |
