h 



f 



74 



Vat fragrant IRote 3Booh 



/ 



SO long since gone were given a choice, she would far prefer 

 to be remembered as " Good Queen Bess." Long gone is she 

 and long gone also her May dances. Not soon again shall we 

 hear the merry crowd shout "The Pole is up! The Pole is 

 up." The pole alas is down, the hobby horses frayed andl"'^ 

 torn, the witch's wands and magic hoods are cast away, 

 the masks and mummery shabby and forgotten, and 

 only memories are fresh and green and free from Time's 

 destmction. i^^^^ ^' ^^^ f / //^Z 



" What's not devoured by Time's devouring hand? / 

 Where's Troy, and where's the May Pole in the Strand? " 



Troy's scarce more lost, alas, than the may pole in the Strand, 

 4)ut if the pole's down, the shabby hobby-horses are thrown 

 aside and the rebeck hushed, thanks be that the old spirit 

 has not altogether vanished from the land. Still in rural 

 faith we seek favours in the four-leaved clover, still shy 

 lassies test their fortunes in the falling petals of the daisy 

 while breathless with anxiety they murmur, 



// 



" One I love; two I love; three I love I say, 

 Four I love with all my heart and five I cast away." 



^ "Superstitious," you say. Oh! Bother a meddling 

 realist. Have you no heart, reader? Yes, superstitions, if 

 you like, but such pretty, harmless little ones with an old- 

 world air clinging about them. Besides, if you are a man 

 now, were you never a lad once all a-tremble lest the flower- 

 verdict be, "Five, I cast away?" Or be you never so silver- 



\ 



