Songs for Lovers of Children , opus 39

Merry Christmas, little heart!
Stealing tiptoe down the stair,
While the shadows spread apart
Just to show a something thereafter
By the chimney, long and white.
Santa Claus was here last night!
Did I see him? Well, perhaps;
But I thought I heard the taps.

Of a little, tiny hoof
Pattering, pattering across the roof;
And I know that you will see
Out upon the maple tree,
That one branch is bare and brown,
Where they brushed it coming down!

Merry Christmas, little heart!
Santa Claus was here last night!
Did I see him? Well, perhaps!

Once the daisy was a star,
And it fell from heaven far,
Just because it wished to grow
Where a little child would go.

So, in all the sunny places
Daisies lift their laughing faces
At the coming of your feet,
Just because they love you, sweet!

Once the violet dripped throughout
From a little rift of blue 
In the skies, upon the grass
Just to see you as you pass.

So in all the shady places 
Violets lift up their faces 
Through the mosses and the dew,
Just because they think of you.

Once a buttercup splashed down
From a sunbeam's golden crown,
Just because it wished to shine
For this little child of mine.

So, in meadowgrasses growing,
Buttercups are always glowing 
Where the little children play,
Just to light them on their way.

In the night the shadows creep,
(Soft and slow, soft and slow)
From the forest dark and deep,
(Soft my dear, and slow) 

From the mountain and the sea,
Stealing very silently,
Till their dusky wings are furled
Round about the weary world

While with folded wings they stand,
(Gray and still, gray and still)
All the world is shadowland,
(Gray my dear, and still) 

Birds are silent in the nest,
Little children are at rest,
Crickets peep and fireflies glow,
While they wander to and fro.

As they sing a cradle song,
(Sweet and low, sweet and low)
To the world the nighttime long
(Sweet my dear, and low)

Sing a song of lullaby
While the weary earth and sky
Slumber all the darkness through
In the starlight and the dew. 

A little song from a treetop high:
The eastern doorway of the sky is opened,
While the morning trips across the world
With smiling lips to call: "O little child awake!
The sun is shining for your sake!"

The shadows furl their wings to rest,
As, through the curtains of the west,
The Evening cometh with a star,
To light her from the world afar,
And says, her grey eyes filled with dew,
"Dear child, I have sweet dreams for you!"

Over the hills and far away, 
He comes at closing of the day,
To kiss my baby's eyes,

And his hair is gold with sunset light,
His voice is soft as dreams at night,
As he gathers lullabies. 

One he takes from the bumblebees,
Singing, humming drowsily,
And the robin gives him one;

And down beneath the grasses hid,
He robs the little katydid,
And leaves her there alone.

Then over all the Sunset lands,
He scatters down his golden sands,
And spreads his soft gray wings;

And ev'ry little sleepyhead
Goes nid-nid-nodding off to bed
Because the Sandman sings.

Beyond the gate of Twilightlands
Across the fields of night,
A fair To-morrow waiting stands
To greet the morning light;

So close your eyes, my sweetest sweet,
And close your eyes, my dear,
And when you wake, for your sweet sake,
To-morrow will be here.

Now, when you have her, hold her fast,
Les she should slip away,
For some folks say she will not last,
But fades into Today.

Yet close your eyes, my sweetest sweet,
And close your eyes, my dear,
And when you wake, for your sweet sake,
To-morrow will be here. 

Three ships there be a-sailing
Between the sea and sky;
And one is "Now," and one is "Then,"
And one is "By and By."

The first little ship is all for you;
Its masts are gold and its sails are blue,
And this is the cargo it brings:

Joyful days with sunlight glowing;
Nights where dreams like stars are growing;
Take them, sweet, or they'll be going,
For they ev'ry one have wings!

The second ship it is all for me,
A-sailing on a misty sea,
And out across a twilight gray.

What it brought of give and blessing 
Would not stay for my caressing,
Was too dear for my posessing,
So it sails and sails away.

The last ship floating far and hight
Upon the sea is "By and By,"
O wind, be kind, and gently blow!

Not too swiftly hasten hither;
When she turns, sweet, you'll go with her,
Sailing, floating hither thither,
To what port I may not know.

Three ships there be a-sailing
Between the sea and sky;
And one is "Now," and one is "Then,"
And one is "By and By."