The Blue Jay 



O Blue Jay, up in the maple tree, 



Shaking your throat with such bursts of glee, 



How did you happen to be so blue? 

 Did you steal a bit of the lake for your crest, 

 And fasten blue violets into your vest? 



Tell me, I pray you, tell me true! 



Did you dip your wings into azure dye, 

 When April began to paint the sky, 



That was pale with the winter's stay? 

 Or were you hatched from a bluebell bright, 

 'Neath the warm gold breast of a sunbeam bright, 



By the river, one blue spring day? 



Blue Jay, up in the maple tree, 

 A-tossing your saucy head at me, 



With ne'er a word at my questioning, 

 Pray cease for a moment your " tink-a-link, " 

 And hear when I tell you what I think, 



You bonniest bit of spring. 



1 think when the fairies made the flowers 

 To grow in these merry fields of ours, 



Periwinkles and voilets rare, 

 There was left of the spring's own color, blue, 

 Plenty to fashion a flower whose hue 



Would be richer than all and as fair. 



So putting their wits together, they 

 Made one great blossom so bright and gay 



The lily beside it seemed blurred, 

 And then they said, " We'll toss it in air. 

 So many blue blossoms grow everywhere, 

 Let this pretty one be a bird!" 



SELECTED. 

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