At the Back of the North Wind · Chapter 16 (2/2)

baby baby babbing

your father’s gone a-cabbing

to catch a shilling for its pence

to make the baby babbing dance

for old Diamond’s a duck

they say he can swim

but the duck of diamonds

is baby that’s him

and of all the swallows

the merriest fellows

that bake their cake

with the water they shake

out of the river

flowing forever

and make dust into clay

on the shiniest day

to build their nest

father’s the best

and mother’s the whitest

and her eyes are the brightest

of all the dams

that watch their lambs

cropping the grass

where the waters pass

singing forever

and of all the lambs

with the shakingest tails

and the jumpingest feet

baby’s the funniest

baby’s the bonniest

and he never wails

and he’s always sweet

and Diamond’s his nurse

and Diamond’s his nurse

and Diamond’s his nurse

When Diamond’s rhymes grew scarce, he always began dancing the baby. Some people wondered that such a child could rhyme as he did, but his rhymes were not very good, for he was only trying to remember what he had heard the river sing at the back of the north wind.