AN EXPLANATION
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Friend, seek not here (to feed the mind) Zoology's recondite feasts: Here you will find but common, kind, And unsophisticated beasts! Yet fresh the life of farm and grange As that which o'er the ocean roams: Take for a change a narrower range— An English book for English homes! |
THE BRITISH BULL-DOG | |
| You swing the gate; and there he stands to greet you, With growl or grin, as you are strange or known: According to your merits will he treat you— An Englishman who loves and guards his own. |
THE UN-COMMON CAT | |
| Nine lives they give the common cat? There's a rare one livelier yet than that! A cat that swings nine separate tails! And, when it's let out of the bag, it rails With so knotty a tongue that the culprit quails! |
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THE FRIENDLY HEN | |
| Some birds lay eggs in towering trees, And some in fens conceal them; The hen seeks friendlier haunts than these, Where every child can steal them. |
