Under the Tree

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Title: Under the Tree
Author: Elizabeth Madox Roberts
Release Date: March 26, 2007 [EBook #20909]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE TREE ***
Produced by David Garcia and the Online Distributed?Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was?produced from images generously made available by The?Kentuckiana Digital Library)
UNDER THE TREE
And over and over I tried to see?Some of us walking under the tree,

And how it looks when I am there.
From _On the Hill_
UNDER THE TREE
BY
ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS
NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH, INC. MCMXXII
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY?B. W. HUEBSCH, INC.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
TO MY FATHER
SIMPSON ROBERTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Certain of these poems have appeared in _The Atlantic Monthly_, _The University Record_ (the University of Chicago), _Poetry, a Magazine of Verse_, _Child Life_, and the _Phoenix_. The author thanks the editors of these journals for the privilege of reprinting.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE SKY 1
THE CORNFIELD 3
MILKING TIME 4
IN MY PILLOW 6
MISS KATE-MARIE 8
THE WOODPECKER 10
THE STAR 11
THE BUTTERBEAN TENT 12
BIG BROTHER 14
MR. WELLS 15
DICK AND WILL 16
THE PILASTER 18
FIREFLY 19
LITTLE RAIN 20
THE PULPIT 22
ON THE HILL 24
AUTUMN 26
THE RABBIT 28
CRESCENT MOON 29
FATHER'S STORY 30
CHRISTMAS MORNING 32
PEOPLE GOING BY 35
BABES IN THE WOODS 38
THE PICNIC 40
MUMPS 42
THE CIRCUS 44
STRANGE TREE 46
THE BRANCH 48
THE WORM 50
A CHILD ASLEEP 52
LITTLE BUSH 54
AT THE WATER 55
WATER NOISES 56
AMONG THE RUSHES 58
NUMBERS 59
IN THE NIGHT 60
THE PEOPLE 63
THE GRANDMOTHER 64
IN MARYLAND 66
THE SUNDAY BONNET 68
THE SUN AND A BIRCH TREE 70
A LITTLE WIND 71
AUTUMN FIELDS 72
MR. PENNYBAKER AT CHURCH 74
THE WOLVES 75
A BEAUTIFUL LADY 76
SHELLS IN ROCK 78
HORSE 80
AUGUST NIGHT 82
THREE DOMINICAN NUNS 84
MY HEART 85
THE HENS 86
THE SKY
I saw a shadow on the ground?And heard a bluejay going by;?A shadow went across the ground,?And I looked up and saw the sky.
It hung up on the poplar tree,?But while I looked it did not stay;?It gave a tiny sort of jerk?And moved a little bit away.
And farther on and farther on?It moved and never seemed to stop.?I think it must be tied with chains?And something pulls it from the top.
It never has come down again,?And every time I look to see,?The sky is always slipping back?And getting far away from me.
THE CORNFIELD
I went across the pasture lot?When not a one was watching me.?Away beyond the cattle barns?I climbed a little crooked tree.
And I could look down on the field?And see the corn and how it grows?Across the world and up and down?In very straight and even rows.
And far away and far away--?I wonder if the farmer man?Knows all about the corn and how?It comes together like a fan.
MILKING TIME
When supper time is almost come,?But not quite here, I cannot wait,?And so I take my china mug?And go down by the milking gate.
The cow is always eating shucks?And spilling off the little silk.?Her purple eyes are big and soft--?She always smells like milk.
And Father takes my mug from me,?And then he makes the stream come out.?I see it going in my mug?And foaming all about.
And when it's piling very high,?And when some little streams commence?To run and drip along the sides,?He hands it to me through the fence.
IN MY PILLOW
When Mother or Father turns down the light,?I like to look into my pillow at night.
Some people call them dreams, but for me?They are things I look down in my pillow and see.
I saw some birds, as many as four,?That were all blue wings and nothing else more.
Without any head and without any feet,?Just blue wings flying over a street.
And almost every night I see?A little brown bowl that can talk to me,
A nice little bowl that laughs and sings,?And ever so many other things.
Sometimes they are plainer than I can say,?And while I am waking they go away.
And when nobody is coming by,?I feel my pillow all over and try
And try to feel the pretty things,?The little brown bowl and the flying wings.
MISS KATE-MARIE
And it was Sunday everywhere,?And Father pinned a rose on me?And said he guessed he'd better take?Me down to see Miss Kate-Marie.
And when I went it all turned out?To be a Sunday school, and there?Miss Kate-Marie was very good?And let me stand beside her chair.
Her hat was made of yellow lace;?Her dress was very soft and thin,?And when she talked her little tongue?Was always wriggling out and in.
I liked to smell my pretty rose;?I liked to feel her silky dress.?She held a very little book?And asked the things for us to guess.
She asked about Who-made-y-God,?And never seemed to fuss or frown;?I liked to watch her little tongue?And see it wriggle