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قراءة كتاب The Quadrupeds' Pic-Nic
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 7
quake,
Oh! may he ne’er visit this land or this lake.
The small swimming spider, with silky lined cell,
I have seen her manœuvre her own diving-bell.
They are endless the wonders of shallow and deep,
But I spare you the list, you are falling asleep.”
The rest of the party amused themselves well,
Seeking insects and fruits in each dingle and dell:
Some stroll’d in the shade, others bask’d in the sun,
Whilst some with the cubs had a good game of fun.
The ant-bears, both greater and lesser, caught ants;
With their long slimy tongues hanging out from the mouth,
Though they thought they preferr’d the great grubs of the south.
Some traced out the store of the wild honey-bee,
Hoarded up in the trunk of an old hollow tree,
Then but sparingly tasted, although it was good,
Being told by their dams it was dangerous food.
The sloths, two and three toed, were hardly awake;
The fox caught his tail, and the Caiman a snake,
Which was wriggling along to a lark’s low-built nest,
To tear the soft young from the mother’s warm breast.
The sheep and the cow, in apparent dejection,
Were quietly chewing the cud of reflection.
The cavies and ermines were running a race,
Armadillo was off to a grasshopper chace.
The cat was surprised to see animals roam,
And she purr’d when she thought of her kitten at home.
Report said, a puppy got into a scrape,
By making remarks on the walrus’s shape,
Her small head, her short neck, and the breadth of her hips;
But he said, “upon honour he meant no offence,”
And she, by forgiving him, shew’d her good sense.
The fox (cunning rogue!) too, complain’d of opossum,
For smuggling her young to the feast in her bosom;
For, as he was peeping and prying about,
“He had seen the young scapegraces get in and out.”
The land mouse, the water, and long-tail’d mouse, too,
Tiny field mouse, that turn’d up nose vixen the shrew,
The harvest mouse, fresh from a settler’s rick,
Were condemn’d by the great ones as not of their clique;
These reclined round a mole hill, and each dipp’d his paw
In a cocoa-nut bowl fill’d with rice, “en pillau.”
And the harvest mouse took most exceeding great pains
To squeak them a stanza in honour of grains.
[p24]
MOUSE’S SONG.
“An ear of corn, a grain of rice,
Banquet rich for simple mice;
A leaf his bed, a hole his house,
Who could hurt a harmless mouse?
“Grasshopper, so green and gay,
See him as he bounds away!
Without bridle, spur, or stirrup,
Oh! what music in that chirrup!
“Mosquito humming merrily,
Glads us all most cheerily;
Admire his transparent