Eugene Field

Shuffle

Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks
 Sit together, building blocks;
   Shuffle-Shoon is old and grey,
     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 levelled 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.
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