THE
DALES OF ARCADY
BY
DOROTHY UNA RATCLIFFE
ERSKINE MACDONALD, LTD.
LONDON, W.C.1
All Rights Reserved
First published November 1918
DEDICATED TO
THE FIRST YORKSHIREMAN I SET EYES ON
DADDY
CONTENTS
Prologue
Daleshire
On Otley Chevin
The Song of Nidderdale
Song of the Mists
Wander-Thirst
The Road
The Swaling of the Moor
The Moors in Summer
My Herbary
Rushes
Satan and I
To the Wind
Saadi and the Rose
The Difference
Song of the Primroses
Lilies
The Pear-Tree
Beggar's Gold
On Early Rising
Jewels
Bargaining
Song of Good-Bye
King Yesterday
Kissing
Philosophy
A Thrush's Song
A February Day
Laus Deo
"Past-Ten-O'Clock-Land"
To Memory
A War Prayer for a Little Boy
Star-Scandal
The First of July
"The Ideal Man"
To the Coming Spring
Question
The Dales of Arcady
A War-time Grace
Queen Mab's Awakening
The youngest Goddess sat in a corner of the Universe and sulked.
For æons, she had watched the older Goddesses play each in turn withthe Earth-Ball, and every time the Ball passed her way, someone said,
"She is too young, and, if she played with the Ball, might injure it."
Another added,
"Even our honourable Sister E—— created baleful Etna in her ardentdesire to give a beauteous mountain to flowering Sicily, and C——,when she designed the azure Mediterranean, raised her little finger alltoo hurriedly, caus