THE RAIN MAN. 



RAIN-MAN, Rain-man, come today, 

Shower the meadows fresh and gay; 

Give sweet grass to cow and calf, 

Wake the rose and make it laugh. 

Dance and fall from out the sky, 

Fill our cistern long since dry; 

Foam the brook up to the brim, 

Swell the pool where ducklings swim. 

Wash the strawberries in their bed, 

Make them ripe and round and red; 

Wash the cherries 'math the eaves, 

Blushing under thick green leaves. 

Lay the dust upon the street, 

Send up odors clean and sweet 

From the earth and new-mown grass, 

When the little breezes pass. 

Send the doves, that love not rain, 

Trooping to their cote again; 

But the sparrows chatter more 

When you beat upon their door. 

Steal into the robin's nest, 

Make the nestlings seek her breast; 

Make the chickens run and hide 

'Neath the mother-wings so wide. 

Rain-man, 'neath your cloudy hat, 

Come and clatter, pat, pat, pat; 

O'er the roofs, and chimneys, too, 

Let us hear your tramping shoe. 

Put you cloak on, Goodman Gray, 

Come and visit us today; 

Pour your buckets down the sky; 

When you're through, we'll shout: "Good-by!" 





—Augusta Larned, in St. Nikholas.