Janet and I went jesting

To the wood, to the wood,

In a visionary, questing,

Idle mood.

"Ah! my heart," I said, "it teaches

I shall find among the beeches

A white nymph in the green reaches

Of the wood."—

"Oh, you will! Then I'll discover,

In the wood, in the wood,

A fairy prince and lover,

Or as good.

He shall kneel and———-"

"Now I spy light!

She shall meet me in the shy light

Of the twittering leaves and twilight

Of the wood,

"And I'll say, 'Here love convinces

Of his powers, of his powers.'"—

"And he'll say, 'Thou shalt be Princess

Of the Flowers.'"—

"And I'll whisper, 'Though thou shinest

As a goddess, love's divinest,

Loveless, lovely, lo! thou pinest

In thy bowers.'"—

And she laughed, with, "Farewell, poet,"—

And I said, "Farewell, maid.

Seek love alone, alone, and know it

Unafraid."—

Was it hours I went unwitting,

Fancy into fancy fitting,

Pallid flowers, and dim birds flitting,

As I strayed?

Till at length, where in profusion

Low and wet, wild and wet,

Fern and branch in shy confusion

Wooed and met,

There I saw her, lifting, peeping—

"Dryad?"—"Prince?"—come whispering, creeping.

Then her eyes were lit and leaping. 'Twas Janet!

Lit and leaping with suggestions.

"Why, it's you!"—"Why, it's you!"

"Yes, but, Jenny, now the question's,

Is it true?

Am I princely to your seeming?

You the dryad of my dreaming,

Born of beech leaves and the gleaming

Of the dew?"

And we put it to the testing

Of a kiss, of a kiss,

And the jesting and the questing

Came to this.

"Tested, tried, and proven neatly,

I should call it true completely."

And Janet said softly, sweetly,.

"So it is."

Oh, the glamour and the glimmer

Of the wood, of the wood,

Where the shadow and the shimmer

Smile and brood,

Where the lips of love laugh folly,

And the eyes of love are holy,

In the radiant melancholy

Of the wood!