Boy's Song

WHERE the pools are bright and deep,
Where the gray trout lies asleep,

Up the river and over the lea,

That's the way for Billy and me.

Where the blackbird sings the latest,

Where the hawthorn blooms the sweetest,

Where the nestlings chirp and flee,

That's the way for Billy and me.

Where the mowers mow the cleanest,
Where the hay lies thick and greenest,
There to track the homeward bee,
That's the way for Billy and me.

Where the hazel bank is steepest,
Where the shadow falls the deepest,
Where the clustering nuts fall free,
That's the way for Billy and me.*

* Two stanzas omitted.

James Hogg.

THE WEATHER

A Weather Rule

IF

the evening's red and the morning gray,
It is the sign of a bonnie day;

If the evening's gray and the morning's red,
The lamb and the ewe will go wet to bed.

Two Promises

CANDLEMAS (February 2)

F Candlemas Day be fair and bright,

IF

Winter will have another flight;

If on Candlemas Day it be shower and rain,
Winter is gone and will not come again.

ST. SWITHIN (July 15)

ST.

T. Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain ;

St. Swithin's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.

Signs of Foul Weather

THE hollow winds begin to blow ;

The clouds look black, the glass is low;
The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep;
And spiders from their cobwebs peep.
Last night the sun went pale to bed;
The moon in halos hid her head.
The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
For, see, a rainbow spans the sky.

Old Rhymes.

The walls are damp, the ditches smell,
Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel.

Hark! how the chairs and tables crack,
Old Betty's joints are on the rack:
Her corns with shooting-pains torment her,
And to her bed untimely sent her.
Loud quack the ducks, the sea-fowl cry,
The distant hills are looking nigh.
How restless are the snorting swine!
The busy flies disturb the kine.
Low o'er the grass the swallow wings,
The cricket, too, how sharp he sings!
Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws,
Sits wiping o'er her whisker'd jaws.
The smoke from chimneys right ascends,
Then spreading, back to earth it bends.
The wind unsteady veers around,
Or settling in the South is found.
Through the clear stream the fishes rise,
And nimbly catch the incautious flies.
The glow-worms num'rous, clear and bright,
Illum'd the dewy hill last night.
At dusk the squalid toad was seen,
Like quadruped, stalk o'er the green.
The whirling wind the dust obeys,
And in the rapid eddy plays.

The frog has chang'd his yellow vest,

And in a russet coat is drest.

The sky is green, the air is still,

The mellow blackbird's voice is shrill.
The dog, so alter'd in his taste,
Quits mutton-bones, on grass to feast,
Behold the rooks, how odd their flight,

They imitate the gliding kite,
And seem precipitate to fall,
As if they felt the piercing ball.
The tender colts on back do lie,
Nor heed the traveller passing by.
In fiery red the sun doth rise,

Then wades through clouds to mount the skies.

"Twill surely rain, we see't with sorrow,

No working in the fields to-morrow.

THE WINDS

Dr. Jenner.

The Four Winds

HE South wind brings wet weather,

THE

The North wind wet and cold together;

The West wind always brings us rain,

The East wind blows it back again.

Old Rhyme.

The Wind in a Frolic

THE wind one morning sprang up from sleep,

Saying, "Now for a frolic! now for a leap!

Now for a madcap galloping chase!

I'll make a commotion in every place!"

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