Enchanted morning took my hand,
We walked an airy mile
Through buttercup and daisyland
Two dreams to wait-a-while.
The paths were all of shining gold,
And by a mossy pool,
A podgy froggie aeons old
Was ringing time to school.
The schoolhouse was a sugarloaf,
The cane a chocolate stick,
Each scholar, wisehead, dunce, and oaf,
Assembled tick by tick.
And when the teacher called the roll
Each answered, "By and by."
At Wait-a-while the school was droll,
You never heard a sigh.
The lessons made you laugh to learn.
Two sunbeams make a smile
Was the worst sum; for tables turn
In school at Wait-a-While.
If anything was hard to do,
Like turn and turn about,
The pupils turned the teacher blue,
By shouting, "School is out."
When last I picked a buttercup
Of dreams at Wait-a-while,
The holidays were shutting up
The school with half-a-smile.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 November 1934
