Less effective, but more characteristic, is "The Shepherd Boy" (No.

5).

This is almost, at moments, MacDowell in the happiest phase of his lighter vein.

The transition from F minor to major, after the _fermata_ on the second page, is as typical as it is delectable; and the fifteen bars that follow are of a markedly personal tinge.

"From Long Ago" and "From a Fisherman's Hut" are less good, and "The Post Wagon" and "Monologue" are disappointing--the latter especially so, because the exquisite poem which he has chosen to enforce, the matchless lyric beginning "Der Tod, das ist die kuehle Nacht," should, it seems, have offered an inspiring incentive.
In the "Four Little Poems" of op.