Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks

Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks

Sit together, building blocks;

Shuffle-Shoon is old and grey,

Amber-Locks a little child,

But together at their play

Age and Youth are reconciled,

And with sympathetic glee

Build their castles fair to see.

"When I grow to be a man"

(So the wee one's prattle ran),

"I shall build a castle so—

With a gateway broad and grand;

Here a pretty vine shall grow,

There a soldier guard shall stand;

And the tower shall be so high,

Folks will wonder, by-and-by!"

Shuffle-Shoon quoth: "Yes, I know;

Thus I builded long ago!

Here a gate and there a wall,

Here a window, there a door;

Here a steeple wondrous tall

Riseth ever more and more!

But the years have levelled low

What I builded long ago!"

So they gossip at their play,

Heedless of the fleeting day;

One speaks of the Long Ago

Where his dead hopes buried lie;

One with chubby cheeks aglow

Prattleth of the By-and-By;

Side by side, they build their blocks—

Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks.