When the voices of children are heard on the green

And laughing is heard on the hill,

My heart is at rest within my breast

4

And everything else is still.

"Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down

And the dews of night arise;

Come, come, leave off play, and let us away

8

Till the morning appears in the skies."

"No, no, let us play, for it is yet day

And we cannot go to sleep;

Besides, in the sky the little birds fly

12

And the hills are all cover’d with sheep."

"Well, well, go & play till the light fades away

And then go home to bed."

The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d

16

And all the hills echoed.