KINGFISHER.

Why dost thou hide thy beauty from the sun?
66 The eye of men, but not of heaven, I shun;
Beneath the rushy bank, with alders crowned,
I build and brood where running waters sound;
There, there the halcyon 1 peace may still be found.”

1

PHEASANT.

Pheasant, forsake the country; come to town!
I'll warrant thee a place beneath the crown.

-

"No; not to roost upon the throne would I Renounce the woods, the mountains, and the sky."

STORK.

Stork, why were human virtues given to thee?
"That human beings might resemble me;
Kind to my offspring, to my partner true,
And duteous to my parents-what are you?"
Montgomery,

THE COTTAGER AND HIS LANDLORD,

FROM THE LATIN OF MILTON,

A PEASANT to his lord paid yearly court,
Presenting pippins of so rich a sort,
That he, displeased to have a part alone,
Removed the tree, that all might be his own.
The tree, too old to travel, though before

So fruitful, withered, and would yield no more.

1 Halcyon-the Greek name for the Kingfisher. The word generally means, as in this place, quiet and placid, from the retiring and peaceful habits of the bird.

The squire, perceiving all his labour void,
Cursed his own pains, so foolishly employed;
And, "Oh!" he cried, "that I had lived content
With tribute, small indeed, but kindly meant !
My avarice has expensive proved to me,
And cost me both my pippins and my tree."

Cowper.

THE PARROT.

THE deep affections of the breast,
That Heaven to living things imparts,
Are not exclusively possessed

By human hearts.

A Parrot, from the Spanish main,

Full young, and early caged, came o'er,
With bright wings, to the bleak domain
Of Mulla's shore.

To spicy groves, where he had won

His plumage of resplendent hue,
His native fruits, and skies, and sun,
He bade adieu.

For these he changed the smoke of turf,
A heathery land and misty sky,
And turned on rocks and raging surf
His golden eye.

But, petted, in our climate cold

He lived and chattered many a day;
Until with age, from green and gold,
His wings grew grey.

1 Mulla-the island of Mull, one of the Hebrides, situated in the north-west of Scotland.

At last, when blind and seeming dumb,
He scolded, laughed, and spoke no more,
A Spanish stranger chanced to come
To Mulla's shore;

He hailed the bird in Spanish speech,
The bird in Spanish speech replied,
Flapped round his cage with joyous screech,
Dropt down, and died.

Campbell.

A FAIRY'S SONG.'

COME, follow, follow me,
Ye fairy elves that be;
Light tripping o'er the green,
Come follow Mab, your queen!
Hand in hand we'll dance around,
For this place is fairy ground.

When mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest
Unheard and unespied

Through key-holes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
We trip it with our fairy elves.

And if the house is swept,
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,

And duly she is paid;

This song, which is taken, with little alteration, from Percy's Reliques, appears to have been first published in the

year 1658.

For every night before we go,
We drop a tester1 in her shoe.
Then o'er the mushroom's head
Our table-cloth we spread;
A grain of rye or wheat,
The manchet 2 that we eat;
Pearly drops of dew we drink
In acorn-cups filled to the brink.
The grasshopper, gnat, and fly
Serve for our minstrelsy;
Grace said, we dance awhile,
And so the time beguile;

And if the moon doth hide her head,
The glow-worm lights us home to bed.

O'er tops of dewy grass ·

So nimbly do we pass,

The young and tender stalk

Ne'er bends where we do walk;

Yet in the morning may be seen

Where we the night before have been,

AN ITALIAN SONG.

DEAR is my little native vale;

The ring-dove builds and murmurs there :

Close by my cot she tells her tale

To every passing villager.

The squirrel leaps from tree to tree,
And shells his nuts at liberty.

1 Tester a sixpence.

2 Manchet-a small white loaf-food.

In orange groves and myrtle bowers,
That breathe a gale of fragrance round,
I charm the fairy-footed hours

With my loved lute's romantic sound;
Or crowns of living laurel weave
For those that win the race at eve.

The shepherd's horn at break of day,
The ballet danced in twilight glade,
The canzonet and roundelay

Sung in the silent greenwood shade;
These simple joys that never fail,
Shall bind me to my native vale.

THE DOG OF ST. BERNARD'S.

Rogers.

THEY tell that on St. Bernard's 2 mount.
Where holy monks abide,
Still mindful of misfortune's claim,
Though dead to all beside;

The weary, way-worn traveller

Oft sinks beneath the snow;

For, where his faltering steps to bend
No track is left to show.

'Twas here, bewildered and alone,
A stranger roamed at night;

1 Canzonet a little song, sometimes sung in parts.

2 St. Bernard's-a lofty mountain, one of the Alps, in Switzerland, on the summit of which is a monastery, whose inmates are accustomed to give hospitable shelter to the weary traveller.