And two I knew, an old man and a boy, Alternate helpers: for their day was spent In gathering forest bark; and when they went Late home, the elder did his time employ To teach the other and tell him what he knew Of history, myth, or mathematics hard, In hours of night and, when the night was dark, Showed him Job's Coffin, and the Golden Yard, Showed the nine moonstars in the moonless blue, And the great Circle of the Bestiary; So that the child grew up to love the sky And, in the woods beyond the hemlock bark, To heed the intricate moss that o'er it grew, The shadowy flower all wet with all-day dew. |