Shuffle-shoon and Amber-Locks Sit together, building blocks;
Shuffle-Shoon is old and gray, 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 leveled 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.
