The Three Mulla-Mulgars

If you know Walter De La Mare's work, you probably know him as an important literary novelist and poet in the early twentieth century. But he also tried his hand at children's fiction, and "The Three Mulla-mulgars" is pretty special. It's the sort of book you want to take home and read to your kids yourself.

But it's De La Mare. You "know" it's got to have a bit of verse, don't you?

"Long -- long is Time, though books be brief:
Adventures strange -- ay, past belief --
Await the Reader's drowsy eye;
But, wearied out, he'd lay them by.

"But, if so be he'd some day hear
All that befell these brothers dear
In Tishnar's lovely Valleys -- well,
Poor pen, thou must that story tell

"But farewell, now, you Mulgars three
Farewell, your faithful company
Farewell, the heart that loved unbidden --
Nod's dark-eyed, beauteous Water-midden "