A MIDNIGHT DANCE

The mouse within the silver lake
Was nibbling crumbs of currant cake,
When thirty fairies bright to see
Appeared in gauzy company.

The girls in sheeny petticoats,
Singing delicious treble notes,

With moving mazes charmed the eye,
Adepts in dance and minstrelsy.

    
  

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And then came marching from the door,
With steady steps across the floor,
Fairies, made servants for their sins,
With tiny golden violins,

These formed a group beside the bed ;
Each bent his small obedient head,
And then was scraped a dance so sweet
It captured all the hearers’ feet.

Oh, how they flitted! how they leapt!
In magic undulations swept!