Page 187—Mixed Animal Land

An Address to a Mouse
Sly little, cowering, timorous beastie!
Oh what a panic's in thy breastie!
You need not start away so hasty,
With bickering speed:
I should be loth to run and chase thee
I should indeed!
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Hath broken Nature's social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
And fellow mortal.
Sometimes, I doubt not, thou dost thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou must live;
A little barley in the shieve
Is small request;
And all thou tak'st, I do believe,
Will ne'er be missed.
R. Burns
Song of the Toad
I am an honest toad,
Living here by the road;
Beneath a stone I dwell,
In a snug little cell.
When the rain patters down,
I let it wet my crown;
And now and then I sip
A drop with my lip.
And now a catch a fly,
And now I wink my eye,
And now I take a hop,
And now and then I stop.
And this is all I do,
And yet they sat it's true
That the toad's face is sad,
And his bite is very bad.
Oh! naughty folks they be
Who tell such tales of me!
For I'm an honest toad
Just living by the road,
Hip, hip, hop.
Mosquito Song
In a summer's night I take my flight
To where the maidens repose;
And while they are slumbering sweet and sound,
I bite them on the nose;
The warm red blood that tints their cheeks,
To me is precious dear,
For 'tis my delight to buzz and bite
In the season of the year.
When I get my fill, I wipe my bill,
And sound my tiny horn;
And off I fly to mountain high
Ere breaks the golden morn;
But at eve I sally forth again
To tickle the sleeper's ear;
For 'tis my delight to buzz and bite
In the season of the year.
On the chamber wall about I crawl,
Till landlord goes to bed;
Then my bugle I blow, and down I go
To light upon his head.
Oh, I love to see the fellow slap,
And regret to hear him swear;
For 'tis my delight to buzz and bite
In the season of the year.
The Nightingale and Glow-worm
A Nightingale, that all day long
Had cheered the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel—as well he might—
The keen demands of appetite;
When looking eagerly around,
He spied, far off, upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark;
So; stooping down, from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangued him this, quite eloquent—
"Did you admire my lamp," quoth he,
"As much as I your minstrelsy?
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song;
For 'twas the self-same power divine
Taught you to sing, and me to shine:
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night."
The songster heard his short oration,
And, warbling out his approbation,
Released him as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.
Cowper
The Glow-worm
Beneath this hedge, or near the stream,
A worm is known to stray,
That shows by night a lucid stream
That disappears by day.
Disputes have been, and still prevail,
From whence his rays proceed;
Some give the honor to his tail,
And others to his head;
But this is sure—the hand of might
That kindles up the skies,
Gives him a modicum of light,
Proportion'd to his size.
Perhaps indulgent Nature meant,
By such a lamp bestow'd,
To bid the traveller as he went,
Be careful where he trod.
Cowper
Happiness of the Grasshopper
Happy insect! what can be
In happiness compared with thee!
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy morning's gentle wine;
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill.
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants belong to thee:
All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with easy juice;
The country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened year!
Cowley
The Whale
Warm and buoyant, in his oily mail,
Gambols on seas of ice th' unwieldily whale;
Wide waving fins round boating islands urge
His bulk gigantic through the troubled surge;
With hideous yawn, the flying shoals he seeks,
Or clasps with fringe of horn his massy cheeks;
Lifts o'er the tossing wave his nostril bare,
And spouts the watery columns into air;
The silvery arches catch the setting beams,
And transient rainbows tremble o'er the streams.
Darwin
The wasp and the Bee
A wasp met a bee that was just buzzing by,
And he said "Little Cousin, can you tell me why
You are loved so much better by people than I.
"My back shines as bright, and as yellow as gold
And my shape is most elegant too to behold,
And yet nobody likes me for that, I am told,"
Bz.
"Ah! Cousin," the bee said, "'tis all very true,
But if I were half as much mischief to do,
Then I'm sure they would love me no better than you.
Bz.
"You have a fine shape and a delicate wing,
And they say you are handsome; but then there's one thing
They never can put up with; and that is your sting.
Bz.
"My coat is quite homely and plain, as you see,
But yet no one is angry or scolding at me,
Just because I'm a harmless and busy bee."
Bz.
From this little story let people beware,
For if, like the cross wasp, ill-natured they are,
They will never be loved, though they're ever so fair.
My Pets
I bring my little doggies milk;
I bring my rabbits hay;
I feed and tend, and love them well—
Such helpless things are they!
See! now in soft and cozy bed
They roll about and play;
They've milk and bones, and all they want—
Such happy pets are they!