14
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Where are you going, sister Kate?

I'm going to swing on the garden gate,

And watch the fairy gypsies dance

Their tim-tam-tum on the cabbage-plants —

The great big one with the purple nose,

And the tiny tad with the pinky toes.

Where are you going, brother Ben?

I'm going to build a tiger-pen.

I'll get iron and steel and 'lectric wire

And build it a hundred feet, or higher,

And put ten tigers in it too,

And a big wildcat, and —— mebbe —— you.

Where are you going, mother mine?

I'm going to sit by the old grapevine,

And watch the gliding swallow bring

Clay for her nest from the meadow spring —

Clay and straw and a bit of thread

To weave it into a baby's bed.

 

Where are you going, grandma dear?

I'm going, love, where the skies are clear,

And the light winds lift the poppy flowers,

And gather clouds for the summer showers,

Where the old folks and the children play

On the warm hillside through the livelong day.

 

[NOTES] This rhyme is about the things people do because of they are a girl or boy or because they are young or old. Girls like to think about fairies and boys like to think about building things and wild animals. Mothers like to be quiet and watch birds take care of their babies. Grandmother is thinking of heaven. She talks about where she will go when she dies.

to swing—to move back and forward

gate—door to the garden

fairy—very small (not real) person with wings, who can fly

gypsies—people who travel and have no home

tim-tam-tum—sound they make with their feet when they dance

cabbage plant—food like lettuce

tad—little one

pinky—colour pink

pen—house for animals

’lectric—electric

mebbe—maybe

mother mine—my mother

gliding—flying

swallow—bird

clay—dirt mixed with water

straw—dead grass

thread—cotton

to weave—to sew