University of Virginia Library


125

RED-TOP AND TIMOTHY.

Red-Top and Timothy
Come here in the spring;
Light spears out of emerald sheaths
Everywhere they swing:
Harmless little soldiers,
On the field they play,
Nodding plumes and crossing blades
All the livelong day.
Timothy and Red-Top
Bring their music-band:
Some with scarlet epaulets,
Strutting stiff and grand;
Some in sky-blue jackets,
Some in vests of pink:
Black and white their leader's coat,—
Restless Bob-o'-link!
Red-Top's airy feathers
Tremble to his notes,
In themselves an orchestra;
Then a thousand throats
Set the winds a-laughing,
While the saucy thing
Anywhere, on spike or spear,
Sways himself to sing.
Red-Top and Timothy
Have a mortal foe;
There 's a giant with a scythe
Comes and lays them low;
Shuts them in barn-prisons;
Spares not even Sweet Clover:
Bob-o'-link leads off his band,
Now the campaign 's over.
Timothy and Red-Top
Will return again,
With familiar songs and flowers,
Through the April rain.
Though their giant foeman
Will not let them be,
One who swings a keener scythe
Cuts down such as he.