[A great shame, in] The poet and the children carefully selected poems from the works of the best and most popular writers for children |
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49
A GREAT SHAME.
Mr. and Mrs. Blue-back Swallow
Back from their Florida journey came,
To their summer home in that shady hollow
Other people a chimney name.
Back from their Florida journey came,
To their summer home in that shady hollow
Other people a chimney name.
Theirs was not on a modern villa,
Inches square, with a fluted top,
And arching cover, with scroll and pillar,
Squeezing and blinding their homeward flop.
Inches square, with a fluted top,
And arching cover, with scroll and pillar,
Squeezing and blinding their homeward flop.
A great old-fashioned chimney's corner
Many a year had held their nest:
Loved in spite of the oriole scorner
Who jeered and sneered from his hammock rest.
Many a year had held their nest:
Loved in spite of the oriole scorner
Who jeered and sneered from his hammock rest.
Here they came when the sun was rising,
Veered, and hovered, and downward dropped;
But Madam suddenly screamed, “Surprising!
Look, my dear, how our door is stopped!”
Veered, and hovered, and downward dropped;
But Madam suddenly screamed, “Surprising!
Look, my dear, how our door is stopped!”
“Sure enough!” chirped Mr. Swallow;
“What! a stone on our very door!
Never again with twittering hollo
Shall we dart to our nests once more.
“What! a stone on our very door!
Never again with twittering hollo
Shall we dart to our nests once more.
“Stone, and bricks, and wiry netting
Where the wind went free as air!
Free as we were! Well! no use fretting:
We are a houseless, homeless pair.”
Where the wind went free as air!
Free as we were! Well! no use fretting:
We are a houseless, homeless pair.”
“I know who 'twas!” said the bright-eyed woman.
“Creatures that live in the house below:
Beings who call their own selves ‘human!’
Very inhuman to treat us so!
“Creatures that live in the house below:
Beings who call their own selves ‘human!’
Very inhuman to treat us so!
“These are they who scorch and smoke us,
Making fires on our chimney floor,
And, if we fall to the hearth-stone, poke us,
Bang us, and throw us out of door.
Making fires on our chimney floor,
And, if we fall to the hearth-stone, poke us,
Bang us, and throw us out of door.
“Now, I suppose, because we twitter
And thunder wings in the early dawn,
As up and down to our nests we flitter,
Their nets are over our house-door drawn.
And thunder wings in the early dawn,
As up and down to our nests we flitter,
Their nets are over our house-door drawn.
“Selfish things! may black flies eat 'em!
All mosquitoes bite 'em, too!
Night moths, horn-bugs, May-bugs beat 'em,
Till every visage is black and blue!
All mosquitoes bite 'em, too!
Night moths, horn-bugs, May-bugs beat 'em,
Till every visage is black and blue!
50
“Dear!—I hate these horrid people!
Let us fly to a safer home.
What do you say to the old church steeple?
Or to the school-house' shining dome?”
Let us fly to a safer home.
What do you say to the old church steeple?
Or to the school-house' shining dome?”
Never a chirp Sir Blue-back uttered,
Only looked at his wife askance:
Something cross in his beak he muttered,
Then up and off he led her a dance.
Only looked at his wife askance:
Something cross in his beak he muttered,
Then up and off he led her a dance.
Where they went is past my telling.
Sorry I am I must relate
That I shut up their life-long dwelling:
But the snow and rain came down too straight.
Sorry I am I must relate
That I shut up their life-long dwelling:
But the snow and rain came down too straight.
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