But now and then, with pressure of his thumb

To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube

That fumes beneath his nose: the trailing cloud

Streams far behind him, scenting all the air.

Now from the roost, or from the neighboring pale,

Where, diligent to cast the first faint gleam

Of smiling day, they gossiped side by side,

Come trooping at the housewife's well-known call

The feathered tribes domestic. Half on wing,

And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood,