THE SEVEN AGES OF ELF-HOOD

When an Elf is as old as a year and a minute

He can wear a cap with a feather in it.

By the time that he is two times two

He has a buckle for either shoe.

At twenty he is fine as a fiddle,

With a brown belt to go round his middle.

Then he's lived for fifty years or so

His coat may have buttons all in a row.

If past threescore and ten he's grown

Two pockets he has for his very own.

At eighty-two or three year old

They bulge and jingle with bits of gold

But when he's a hundred and a day

He gets a little pipe to play.