A little house with sloping floors

And ceiling dark with oaken beams

And wooden latches to the doors

A little house all full of dreams.

A twisting stairway ages old

A chimney place deep and wide

That when the winter's wind blows cold

You may creep close and sit inside.

A little house right on the street

Grown over with grass

Where you may hear the ring of feet

And singing voices of children pass.

My house my longing heart lays bare

Of memory intimate and rare

When I have a little weary grown

To my last sleep must go some day

In dreams my spirit will return

It could not bear to be away. By Edna Houlder, aged 94,

formerly of Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.