58

SELECT POETRY

While through the shade, her pale, fine face
Shone like a star amidst the place.

She stood so silent, stayed so long,

The parent birds forgot their fear,
Cock-robin trolled his small sweet song,
In notes like dew-drops, trembling, clear ;
From spray to spray the shyer hen
Dropped softly on her nest again.

There Lucy marked her slender bill
On this side, and on that her tail
Peered o’er the edge—while, fixed and still,
Two bright black eyes her own assail,
Which in eye-language seemed to say,

« Peep, pretty maiden, then away !”

Away, away, at length she crept,

So pleased, she knew not how she trode,
Yet light on tottering tip-toe stept,

As if birds’ eggs strewed all the road:
With folded arms and lips comprest,
To keep her joy within her breast.

Morn, noon, and eve, from day to day,

By stealth she visited that spot:

Alike her lessons and her play,

Were slightly conned, or half forgot;

And when the callow young were hatched,
With infant fondness Lucy watched :—
Watched the kind parents dealing food

To clamorous suppliants all agape ;
Watched the small, naked, unformed brood
Improve in size, in plume, and shape,