Afternoon tea

From "Under the Window" by Kate Greenaway

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Afternoon Tea

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A pretty cottage, and maidens three,

Blithe and happy as maids can be,

Out in the garden at afternoon tea.

Just such a feast as girls will make—

Fruit and flowers and a big plum cake,

And plenty of laughter for laughter's sake.

The sunflowers nodded their heads so tall,

The dahlias smiled 'neath the moss-grown wall,

The three little maids outdid them all.

I warrant me in that garden gay

Was never a bloom more fair than they,

As they sipped their tea on that summer day.

Three little maids. Ah! one is dead,

And one is married; and one, unwed,

Now lives alone in the old homestead.

There are silver threads in her golden hair,

Her cheek is pallid and lined with care,

Yet is she still accounted fair.

And daily her gracious, tender ways

Win a more loving meed of praise

Than did the prime of her girlish days.

Yes, youth will wane as the years go by;

Too soon do the rose-leaves scattered lie,

But charms there are which may never die.

And hence it happens that oft we trace

Through timeworn features the soul's sweet grace,

And beauty lives in a faded face.
000000000000 00 Sydney Grey.