SHOP.
(Spring Thoughts by One In Trade.)
When the new Spring is drawing near
There always rises in my blood
A keen desire to see the year
Fresh opening in the bud.
From my tame task to wander free;
For one brief day to get me gone
To some sweet rural spot, and see
How things are getting on.
So, when a rising glass invites,
Off by the ready train I fare;
How sweet are all the country sights,
How fresh the country air!
Here every prospect has its charm;
On every side I find a spell;
There is a pleasure in a farm,
And (almost) in the smell.
'Tis sweet to see the pretty lambs,
To mark them as they frisk and jump,
Or nestle round their anxious dams,
So placid and so plump.
I hear the lark's ecstatic gush
From his clear ambush in the sky;
A blackbird (if it's not a thrush)
Sings from a wood hard by.
I climb towards an open lea
Whereon the goodly cattle browse,
And oh, it does me good to see
Such oxen and such cows.