Above

First Mason:

Tink-a-link! Tink-a-link! Hear the trowels ring; Feel the merry breezes make the scaffold swing; See the skimming swallow brush us with her wing:-- Go it with your hammers, boys; time us while we sing.

BELOW.

First Student:

See the yellow sparkle of the Neckar in the glass, And through the cedar branches sparkles blue the sea; Hear the sweet piano--hear the German lass Sing Freut" euch des Lebens--Oh! "I love I love the free!"

Second Student:

I like the canary better; Look, how he swells his throttle! He gurgles like musical water That dances and sings in a bottle.

ABOVE.

Second Mason:

D'ye mind the students down in the grove Drinking their wine and beer? That's an easy life they lead.

First Mason:

So do we up here When the weathercock points west And the look-off's clear.

Third Mason:

House-top Jim's the boy for work!

First Mason:

True for you, my dear. (Whistles "The Girl I Left Behind me.")

BELOW.

First Student:

See the Dutchmen on those settees: Isn't it like the Rhine? And the old church-tower up over the trees-- Kellner! Noch ein Stein!

Third Student:

I'd like to work with those masons there Half way up the sky. The air is sweet where the pigeons build, And the world is all in their eye.

Second Student:

But "Love is of the valley:" the Gretchen and the Kellner Haunt the cheerful levels of the lower story. Glory in the garret--comfort in the cellar: I will keep the comfort--you may take the glory.

ABOVE.

First Mason:

Look up at the pointers: they 're drawing close together; 'T is here we get the earliest news of sun, and moon, and weather; We can hear time's pulse a-ticking, with the whistling weathercock. Drop your mortar-boards, my lads, it's coming twelve o'clock.

Third Mason:

Oh! it's hungry that I am with working in the wind, But there's a shawl and bonnet--below there: do you mind? It's Molly with the dinner-pail: she's coming in the door. Faith, my belly thinks my throat is cut this half an hour and more.

(The church clock strikes the noon.)