Thorstein of the Mere - A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland #223175

Thorstein in yours. You've made him yours<br>By masterful appropriation:<br>As long as right of might endures<br>I dare no other dedication,<br>Whatever name allures.<br><br>You've seized my copy and revise,<br>Absorbed the proofs, devoured the pages,<br>Retold the tale in travesties,<br>And sketched and played the personages<br>In many a quaint disguise.<br><br>Thanks, Robin: for the wide world o'er<br>A writer asks no finer flattery,<br>No kinder fate of all in store,<br>Than Five-years-old's assault and battery<br>Demanding more and more.<br><br>But now to risk the wider test.<br>Of one applauding hand I'm certain, -<br>Let doubts and fears go unconfessed.<br>So stop the fiddle, - lift the curtain, -<br>And, puppets, play your best.