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Eugene Field - Intry-Mintry
Work rating: Low

Willie and Bess, Georgie and May —
      Once, as these children were hard at play,
      An old man, hoary and tottering, came
      And watched them playing their pretty game.
          He seemed to wonder, while standing there,
              What the meaning thereof could be —
          Ah, but the old man yearned to share
              Of the little children’s innocent glee
      As they circled around with laugh and shout
      And told their rime at counting out:
          “Intry-mintry, cutrey-corn,
          Apple-seed and apple-thorn;
          Wire, brier, limber, lock,
          Twelve geese in a flock;
          Some flew east, some flew west,
          Some flew over the cuckoo’s nest!”

      Willie and Bess, Georgie and May —
      Ah, the mirth of that summer day!
      ’Twas Father Time who had come to share
      The innocent joy of those children there;
          He learned betimes the game they played
              And into their sport with them went he —
          How could the children have been afraid,
              Since little they recked who he might be?
      They laughed to hear old Father Time
      Mumbling that curious nonsense rime
          Of “Intry-mintry, cutrey-corn,
          Apple-seed and apple-thorn;
          Wire, brier, limber, lock,
          Twelve geese in a flock;
          Some flew east, some flew west,
          Some flew over the cuckoo’s nest!”

      Willie and Bess, Georgie and May,
      And joy of summer — where are they?
      The grim old man still standeth near
      Crooning the song of a far-off year;
          And into the winter I come alone,
              Cheered by that mournful requiem,
          Soothed by the dolorous monotone
              That shall count me off as it counted them —
      The solemn voice of old Father Time
      Chanting the homely nursery rime
          He learned of the children a summer more
          When, with “apple-seed and apple-thorn,”
          Life was full of the dulcet cheer
          That brings the grace of heaven near —
          The sound of the little ones hard at play —
          Willie and Bess, Georgie and May.
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