Birds and all Nature, Vol. IV, No 3, September 1898

<h2><SPAN name="THE_HUNTED_SQUIRREL" id="THE_HUNTED_SQUIRREL"></SPAN>THE HUNTED SQUIRREL.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left:-1em;"> <ANTIMG src="images/initial_t_2.jpg" width-obs="25" height-obs="23" alt="T" title="" /> HEN a valley, centuries ago,</span></div> <div class="verse">Ranging the hedges for his filbert food</div> <div class="verse">Sits pertly on a bough, his brown nuts cracking</div> <div class="verse">And from the shell the sweet white kernel taking;</div> <div class="verse">Till with their crooks and bags a sort of boys</div> <div class="verse">To share with him come with so great a noise</div> <div class="verse">That he is forced to leave a nut nigh broke,</div> <div class="verse">And for his life leap to a neighbor oak,</div> <div class="verse">Thence to a beech, thence to a row of ashes;</div> <div class="verse">Whilst through the quagmires and red water plashes</div> <div class="verse">The boys run dabbing through thick and thin.</div> <div class="verse">One tears his hose, another breaks his shin;</div> <div class="verse">This, torn and tattered, hath with much ado</div> <div class="verse">Got by the briars; and that hath lost his shoe;</div> <div class="verse">This drops his band; that headlong falls for haste;</div> <div class="verse">Another cries behind for being last;</div> <div class="verse">With sticks and stones and many a sounding holloa</div> <div class="verse">The little fool with no small sport they follow,</div> <div class="verse">Whilst he from tree to tree, from spray to spray</div> <div class="verse">Gets to the woods and hides him in his dray.</div> <div class="verse ar">&mdash;<span class="sc">William Browne</span>,</div> <div class="verse ar"><i>Old English Poet</i>.</div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</SPAN></span></p> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />