Merry time for girls and boys,

When the cowslips first appear,

Gilding meadows with their cups,—

Happiest time of all the year!

When the bees, with busy hum,

Play amongst their golden bells,

And the butterflies are come—

All of joy and pleasure tells.

Happy children! roaming far,

Gather cowslips at your will;

Fill your baskets—fill them full—

Thousands will be left there still.

Oh! the joyous time of youth,

Like the spring-tide of the year;

Could it but, like cowslip-bells,

Come again each coming year!