FARM LEGENDS.
[THE SCHOOL-MASTER'S GUESTS.]
I.
The district school-master was sitting behind his great book-laden desk,
Close-watching the motions of scholars, pathetic and gay and grotesque.
As whisper the half-leafless branches, when Autumn's brisk breezes have come,
His little scrub-thicket of pupils sent upward a half-smothered hum;
Like the frequent sharp bang of a wagon, when treading a forest path o'er,