1890 A SONNET ON CHILDEEN 1-15 



with shouts of triumph to pick it up. Then the 

 delight of eating lunch under a hedge or in a wood ! 

 That was a time of jokes and fun, and we talked as 

 freely and unrestrainedly as we liked about all kinds 

 of subjects. Then came some more tramping in the 

 turnips, and we would journey homewards, a weary 

 but very happy little party. The counting of the 

 game would follow, and our pride was very great 

 when the number of brace was high, for we felt that 

 we had been helping our father to slay the partridges. 

 In fact, we thought that Sandy, the gamekeeper, was 

 a very useless personage when we went out, for did 

 we not mark as well as, or better than, he did ? And 

 surely we could carry the game bags ; they were not 

 very heavy even when they were full to bursting ! 



There was something very beautiful in the respect 

 and reverence which George Eomanes felt for children 

 and for child-life, and a sonnet ' To my Children ' 

 expresses these feelings : — 



* Of all the little ones whom I have known 



Ye are so much the fairest in my view — 



So much the sweetest and the dearest few — ■ 

 That not because ye are my very own 

 Do I behold a wonder that is shown 



Of loveliness diversified in you : 



It is because each nature as it grew 

 Surpassed a world of joy already grown. 



If months bestow such purpose on the years, 

 May not the years work out a greater plan ? 



Vast are the heights which form this ' vale of tears,' 

 And though what lies beyond we may not scan, 



Thence came my little flock — strayed from their spheres, 

 As lambs of God turned children into man.' 



