How It Happened

Amidst fair gardens long ago Beneath a changing sky, There stood a castle, while below A stream flowed slowly by.

A goodly man of high degree Lived with his lady there; And time and fate had brought them three Fair sons with joy and care.

These boys played by the river’s rim; Alas one autumn day It chanced while none was watching him The youngest son at play

Fell in a deep and muddy pool; The yells that did resound Would make it clear to any fool That someone might be drowned.

The father grabbed a handy hook And ran his best; before He reached the pool, the colored cook Had brought the boy to shore.

The father held him downside up, And rolled him round and round; He yelled--joy filled the father’s cup-- He couldn’t yell if drowned.

A joyful spanking, then a bath, Dry clothes; when he came through, Though deeply stirred to rosy wrath, He seemed as good as new.

The father pondered long--then sent A note to Zeus which said; “In general the government Has had an honest head.

But ’gainst one thing I now protest; The waters everywhere In north and south and east and west Are left completely bare.”

Great Zeus had been in politics For years and years and years; His term approached its close, and kicks Like this aroused his fears

That reelection now might fail. He told Jack Frost to plan Whatever measure might avail To satisfy the man.

And so Jack Frost invented ice, And spread it clear and thin Upon the waters; this device Kept folks from falling in.

Alas, he did not dare to go Far in the temperate zone; The warm South Wind, his bitter foe, Might catch him there alone.

And now when Spring comes back in May, With robins in her train, Jack Frost, the coward, flees away And waits for Winter’s reign.

The ice without his constant care, Grown thin and weak and brown, Runs off and leaves the water bare, And anyone may drown.