While he sits on his nest on that old pine limb.

A life in the woods some men may deride,

But freedom is there, my boast and my pride.

I roam through the wild wood o’er skim or the lake,

My wreaths are of laurel, my plumes never fade;

I sleep when the night falls, with the dawn am awake,

To hunt the red deer while they feed in the glade.

I’m joyous and free as a bird of the air,—

A son of the forest, a stranger to care.