THE SLEEPER

A s Ann came in one summer's day,
^ She felt that she must creep,
So silent was the clear cool house,

It seemed a house of sleep.
And sure, when she pushed open the door, 5

Rapt in the stillness there,
Her mother sat, with stooping head,

Asleep upon a chair;
Fast—fast asleep; her two hands laid

Loose—folded on her knee, 10

So that her small unconscious face

Looked half unreal to be:
So calmly lit with sleep's pale light

Each feature was; so fair
Her forehead—every trouble was 15

Smoothed out beneath her hair.
But though her mind in dream now moved,

Still seemed her gaze to rest—
From out beneath her fast-sealed lids,

Above her moving breast— 20

On Ann : as quite, quite still she stood;

Yet slumber lay so deep
Even her hands upon her lap

Seemed saturate with sleep.
And as Ann peeped, a cloudlike dread 25

Stole over her, and then,
On stealthy, mouselike feet she trod,

And tiptoed out again.

371 ***