FAIRY GIFTS.
Pretty Peggy one morning was dancing on dew,
When the fairies came by, and they took her away,
And she lived with the fairies a whole year through,
And came back to her cabin next Midsummer day.
They brought her the charms that no mortal can bring,
She was pretty before—she was beautiful then;
But they made her as proud as a young rose in spring,
And they harden'd her heart against all sorts of men.
Patrick came with his simper, and Dermot with sighs,
And Jerry with jokes, and with blarney came Mike,
And Darby with laughter in both his bright eyes,
And a crowd of the boys bade her take which she like;
But she shunn'd them, the tender, wild, simple, and sage,
And lived by herself while her fairy gift fades;
And this was the prayer of her lonely old age,
"Heaven keep from such fairy gifts all merry maids!"