Bird Fairies

               What a buzzing and a whirring,
               A fluttering and stirring,
Among the honeysuckles and blooming bean-vines!

               We fancy, by the humming,
               There is something merry coming,
And hold our breath a moment to listen to the signs.

                         Ah yes! it is the airy
                         And bonny Bird-fairy,
               The flittering hummer who feeds among blooms;
                         And his jacket is as green
                         As the leaves upon the bean,
               And scarlet as the flowers are his little cap’s plumes!

               As bees above the clover,
               So highly will he hover,
Now here, and now suddenly darting aside;
               And his beak is like an arrow,
               Shot down into the narrow
Bloom nectaries, after the sweets that they hide.

               Just a quivering of light
               Are his wings in their flight,
His nest a tiny moss-cup cunningly made,
               Where his pluméd lady curls
               Over two little pearls,
That the learned folks will tell you a humming-bird laid!

               So let it be their name,—
               They are fairies just the same!
And we twine the blooming vinery to lure them to our eaves.
               And baby, sitting under,
               Looks up with happy wonder,
To see the living emeralds go whirring through the leaves!