CAPUT XIV.
Violet-colour’d mountain summits
Smile from out the sunny gold-ground;
To the slope a village clingeth,
Seeming like a daring bird’s nest.
When I climb’d up to it, found I
That the old ones all had flown,
And that none were now remaining
Save the young, who could not fly yet;
Pretty boys, and little maidens,
Almost hidden in their scarlet
Or white woollen caps, whilst playing
At a marriage, in the market.
Still they play’d regardless of me,
And I saw how the enamour’d
Mouse-prince knelt pathetically
To the fair cat-emperor’s daughter.
Poor young prince! Alas! he’s married
To the beauty. She morosely
Wrangles, bites him, and then eats him;
When he’s dead, the game is over.
Almost all the day I linger’d
With the children, and we chatted
Like old friends. They fain would ask me
Who I was, and what my business.
“Dear young friends, my native country
“Is call’d Germany,” I told them:
“Bears are found there in abundance,
“And my business is bear-hunting.
“There I’ve torn the skin from many
“Of their bearish ears, and sometimes
“Found myself full sorely handled
“By the paws of Master Bruin.