Its rural anthem; and for this Jane gave

The brown-bread crumbs, she’d made a rule to save.

So came the pretty robin-redbreast, too,—

(Oh! that the world was half so good and true,)

She from the leaded window-sill would pick

With birdlike aptitude—so wondrous quick—

The frugal fragments of Jane’s surplus store;

Haste to her offspring, and return for more:

Sometimes the pretty creature chirp’d in vain,

But not when Jane could spare a crumb or grain.