“For old Mrs. Earth was fast asleep; and, like many pretty people, she looked still prettier asleep than awake. The great elm trees in their gold-green meadows were fast asleep above, and the cows fast asleep beneath them; nay, the few clouds which were about were fast asleep likewise, and so tired that they had lain down on the earth to rest, in long white flakes and bars, among the stems of the elm trees, and along the tops of the alders by the stream, waiting for the sun to bid them rise and go about their days business in the clear blue overhead.”
“But his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired. His eyelids grew so heavy that they would keep tumbling down over his eyes. He kept lifting them and lifting them. But everytime, they were heavier than the last. It was no use! They were too much for him. Sometimes before he got them halfway up, down they went again. At length, he gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast asleep!”
“With a pleasant feeling of companionship, a sense that she was not the only living creature awake in this dark world, Griselda lay listening, contentedly enough, for the sweet, fresh notes of the cuckoo’s friendly greeting. But before it sounded again through the silent house she was once more fast asleep. And this time she slept till daylight had found its way into all but the very darkest nooks and crannies of the ancient dwelling.”
“The first notes were low and murmuring. Again they made Griselda think of little rippling brooks in summer, and now and then there a sort of hum as of insects buzzing in the warm sunshine near. This humming gradually increased, till at last Griselda was conscience of nothing more - everything seemed to be humming, herself to, till at last she fell asleep.”
“And that is the reason (Aunt Emily said),
If a Dormouse gets in a chrysanthemum bed,
You will find (so Aunt Emily says) that he lies,
Fast asleep on his front with his paws to his eyes.”
“Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep, and dreamt she heard them bleating; but when she awoke, she found it a job, for they were still a-fleeting. Then up she took her little crook, determined for to find them, she found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed for they’d left all their tails behind ‘em.”