68.

SELECT POETRY

TO A HEDGE SPARROW.

Lirrzz flutterer ! swiftly flying,
Here is none to harm thee near;

Kite, nor hawk, nor schoolboy prying ;—
Little flutterer! cease to fear.

One who would protect thee ever
From the schoolboy, kite, and hawk,
Musing, now obtrudes, but never
Dreamt of plunder in his walk.

He no weasel, stealing slily,
Would permit thy eggs to takes

Nor the polecat, nor the wily
Adder, nor the speckled snake.

May no cuckoo, wandering near thee,
Lay her egg within thy nest;

Nor thy young ones, born to cheer thee,
Be destroyed by such a guest !!

Little flutterer ! swiftly flying,
Here is none to harm thee near;
Kite, nor hawk, nor schoolboy prying ;—
Little flutterer cease to fear.

1 The cuckoo usually deposits her egg in the nest of the
hedge-sparrow, who hatches it, and tends the young one as
her own—a service which it repays by speedily turning out
all the other nestlings,