Lady’s Slippers

From the Perth Amboy Evening News, April 21, 1913.
 

 Deep hidden in the green of woods,
     Where rain of sunlight, sifting through
 The woven layers of the leaves
     Makes diamonds of the dew,
 There is a secret nook I know
     Where yellow lady’s slippers grow.
 
 And I have seen from day to day
     (Though new ones come to take the place)
 How soon they seem to wear away
     And lose their first day’s grace.
 And I have often mourned that they
     Should be so quick to fade away.
 
 It’s strange I never guessed this thing
     Before, but now I know,
 Because I found a fairy ring
     Beside the place they grow—
 The moss, which is the fairies’ lawn,
     With toadstools that they sit upon.
 
 The fairies put the flowers there
     Of course. They never grew by chance.
 At midnight each one takes a pair—
     They wear the slippers when they dance.
 And with the peeping of the sun
     They hang them on their stalks and run.