Читать книгу By the Sea, and Other Verses - Baily Hannah Lavinia - Страница 9

The gliding of a fairy form

And rosy lips that knew no guile,

With wonder parted, came to ask,

"Papa, what is a smile?"

A smile, whate'er it is, then stole

That gentle parent's features o'er;

For ne'er to him had been proposed

Query so strange before.

But while he pondered in his heart

How he should to his child reply,

A new, triumphant joy lit up

Her loving, lustrous eye; —

And with this gladsome, new-found thought,

She answered in her own behalf:

"Oh, now, I know; a smile must be

The whisper to a laugh!"