 | A Summer Christmas and a Sonnet upon The S.S. "Ballaarat." |  |
But Lil and the Professor found
Following plover round and round
(She on her horse and he on foot
In case he had a chance to shoot)
More to their taste; nor did he find
That he lost sport to stay behind,
For several plover and a crane
Soon fell, and once Lil drew her rein
And pointed to a patch of grey
Down by the water far away,
And bade him draw his cartridges,
And put in ‘eights’ instead of ‘threes,’
And steal up to the snippet cloud
And fire both barrels and reload,
In case a bittern should be scared
Out of the reeds. He thus prepared,
Two dozen ‘pipers’ bleeding lay
Upon the sand, an easy prey,
And, loading fast and aiming well,
A huge, soft, mottled bittern fell
Which rose up from the sedge as soon
As the shot rang o'er the lagoon.
He tried to stalk a pelican
But ever since the sentry swan
Had uttered his first warning note,
They had not ventured within shot
Or even sight. And half the while
He hung upon Lil's radiant smile
And fresh voice so attentively
That many a wary duck flew by
Unnoticed until out of reach,
While he was making some sweet speech.
Following plover round and round
(She on her horse and he on foot
In case he had a chance to shoot)
More to their taste; nor did he find
That he lost sport to stay behind,
For several plover and a crane
Soon fell, and once Lil drew her rein
And pointed to a patch of grey
Down by the water far away,
154
And put in ‘eights’ instead of ‘threes,’
And steal up to the snippet cloud
And fire both barrels and reload,
In case a bittern should be scared
Out of the reeds. He thus prepared,
Two dozen ‘pipers’ bleeding lay
Upon the sand, an easy prey,
And, loading fast and aiming well,
A huge, soft, mottled bittern fell
Which rose up from the sedge as soon
As the shot rang o'er the lagoon.
He tried to stalk a pelican
But ever since the sentry swan
Had uttered his first warning note,
They had not ventured within shot
Or even sight. And half the while
He hung upon Lil's radiant smile
And fresh voice so attentively
That many a wary duck flew by
Unnoticed until out of reach,
While he was making some sweet speech.
| A Summer Christmas and a Sonnet upon The S.S. "Ballaarat." | |