Mount St. John, Auckland, N.Z.

Six little sister willows
Sat round the crater bed,
And chattered, chattered merrily,
Like many a wiser head.

One swung her silken bonnet-strings
In the green young springtime breeze,
And one her dainty slippered foot—
And everyone agrees

That there's nothing like a willow
To look lovely in the Spring,
And there's nothing like soft emerald sheen
To make the heart to sing.

So one told of emerald bull-frogs
A-leaping to the sun;
And one of shy young nestling ferns;
Of simple shamrock one—

And they all flung out their laughter
On the rippling spring-time breeze,
And—what a pretty sight it is,
Sure everyone agrees,

When six little sister willows
Sit round a crater bed,
And chatter, chatter merrily,
Like many a wiser head!

—M. A. Innes.