Fairy tales (1800)/The fairy song

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SUNG BY THE

QUEEN of the FAIRIES.

Come, follow, follow me.
Ye fairy elves that be,
Like tripping oe,r the green,
Come follow all your Queen!

Hand in hand we'll dance around,
For this place is fairy ground.

Wheu mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest,
Unheard and unespied
Thro' key holes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
We trip it with our fairy elves.

And if the house be foul,
With platter, dish, or bowl,
Up stairs we nimbly creep,
And find the sluts asleep;
Then we pinch their arms and thighs,
None us hears, and none us spies.

But if the house be swept,
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,
And surely she is paid:
Every night before we go,
We drop a tester in her shoe,

Then o'er a mushroom's head,
Our table cloth we spread;
A grain of rye or wheat,
The diet that we eat;
⟨Early⟩ drops of dew we drink
⟨And⟩ corn cups filled to the brink.

The baains of nightingales,
With unctous fat of snails,

Between two cockels stew'd,
Is meat that's easily chew'd;
Brains of worms, and marrow of mice,
Do make a feast that's wond'rous nice.

The grasshopper, gnat, and fly,
Serve for our minstrelly;
Grace said, we dance a while,
And so the time beguile:
But if the moon doth hide her head,
The glow-worm lights us home to bed.

O'er tops of dewy grass,
So nimbly we do pass,
The young and tender stalk
Ne'er bends where we do walk;
Yet in the morning may be seen
Where we the night before have been.

FINIS.