There is a mill an ancient one

Brown with rain and dry with sun

The millers house is joined with it

And in July the swallows flit

To and fro in and out

Round the windows all about

The mill wheel whirrs and the waters roar

Out of the dark arch by the door

The willows toss their silver heads

And the phloxes in the garden beds

Turn red turn grey

With the time of day

And smell sweet in the rain then die away

The millers cat is a tabby she

Is as lean as a healthy cat can be

She plays in the loft where the sunbeams stroke

The sacks fat backs and beetles choke

In the floury dust The Wheel goes round

And the millers wife sleeps fast and sound

There is a clock inside the house

Very tall and very bright

It strikes the hour when shadows drowse

Or showers make the windows white

Loud and sweet in rain and sun

The clock strikes and the work is done

The millers wife and his eldest girl

Clean and cook while the mill wheels whirl

The children take their meat to school

And at dusk they play by the twilit pool

Bare-foot bare-head

Till the day is dead

And their mother calls them in to bed

The supper stands on the clean-scrubbed board

And the miller drinks like a thirsty lord

The young men come for his daughters sake

But she never knows which one to take

She drives her needle and pins her stuff

While the moon shines gold and the lamp shines buff

Fredegond Shove