30 SELECT POETRY

Like the bending barley lithe,
Ready for the whetted scythe,
Link-a-tink, rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink-a-tink !

Mary Howitt

 

THE PET LAMB.

Tue dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink;

I heard a voice; it said, “Drink, pretty creature,
drink !”

And looking o’er the hedge, before me I espied

A snow-white mountain lamb, with a maiden at
its side.

No other sheep were near, the Jamb was all alone,

And by a slender cord was tethered! to a stone ;

With one knee on the grass did the little maiden
kneel,

While to that mountain lamb she gave its evening
meal,

"Twas little Barbara Lewthwaite, a child of beauty
rare !

I watched them with delight, they were a lovely pair;

And now with empty can the maiden turned away;

But ere ten yards were gone, her footsteps did she
stay.

Towards the lamb she looked, and from that shady
place

I unobserved could see the workings of her face;

1 Tethered— fastened by a rope,