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SONGS FOR |
CHILDHOOD. |
83 |
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Aud he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, On the billows fall and rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow ! Christ, save us all from a death like this
On the reef of Norman's Woe! |
A NIGHT WITH A WOLF.
Bayabd Taylor.
Little one, come to my knee!
Hark, how the rain is pouring Over the roof in the pitch-black night,
And the winds in the woods a-roaring!
Hush, my darling, and listen,
Theu pay for the story with kisses.
Father was lost in the pitch-black night, In just such a storm as this is!
High up on the lonely mountains,
Where the wild men watched and waited ; Wolves in the forest, and bears in the bush, And I, on my path, belated. |
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THE BALLAD OF BUNNY.
Author of "Lilliput Levee."
It was a black Bunny with white in its head, Alive when the children went cozy to bed. Oil, early next morning that Bunny was dead! |
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When Bunny's young master awoke up from sleep To look at the creatures, young master did creep, And saw that this black one lay all of a heap.
" O Bunny, what ails you ? What does it import That you lean on one side with your breath com�ing short ? For I never before saw a thing of the sort!"
They took him so gently up out of his hutch ; They made him a sick-bed, they loved him so much; They wrapped him up warm, they said " Poor thing!" and such.
But all to no purpose! Black Bunny he died, And rolled over limp on his little black side ; The grown-up spectators looked awkward and
sighed. |
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The rain and the night together
Came down, and the wind came after,
Bending the props of the pine-tree roof, And snapping many a rafter. |
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I crept along in the darkness,
Stunned, and bruised, and blinded�
Crept to a fir with thick-set boughs, And a sheltering rock behind it.
There, from the blowing and raiuiug Crouchiug, I sought to hide me ;
Something rustled, two greeu eyes shone, And a wolf lay down beside me.
Little one, be not frightened :
I and the wolf together, Side by side, through the long, long night,
Hid from the awful weather.
His wet fur pressed against me ;
Each of us warmed the other ; Each of us felt, in the stormy dark,
That beast and man was brother.
And when the falling forest No longer crashed in warning,
Each of us went from our hiding-place Forth in the wild, wet morning.
Darling, kiss me in payment!
Hark, how the wind is roaring! Father's house is a better place
When the stormy rain is pouring! |
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While as for those others in that congregation, You heard voices lifted in sore lamentation ; But three-year-old Baby desired explanation: |
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At least, so it seemed. Then they buried their
* dead In a nice quiet place, with a flag at his head ; " Poor Bunny !"�in large print�was what the flag said. |
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Now as they were shoveling the earth in the hole, Little Baby burst out, "I don't like it!" poor soul! Aud bitterly wept. So the dead had his dole.
That evening, as Baby was cuddling to bed, "The Bunny will come back again," Baby said, "Aud be a white Bunny, and never be dead!" |
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