recorded · 1894 · north noemic · in a back room
sleep, small one — the day is folded. the stove is low. the door is locked. the cat is in. the bread is rising. the moon is somewhere. you needn't look. sleep, small one — the world will keep. it has been keeping a long, long while.
the older of the two lullabies the custodian remembers being sung by her own grandmother. the rhythm is the rhythm of a hand patting a back — three light, one held. the line about the moon is for grown sleepers; small sleepers were already gone by then.
only sung once per child per night. to sing it twice was thought to wake the second sleeper — the one in the mirror, who sleeps lighter.