242 SELECT PORTRY

THE WOODMAN AND HIS boOG.

Forta goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned
The cheerful haunts of man, to wield the axe,
And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear,
From morn to eve his solitary task.
Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears,
And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur,
His dog attends him. Close behind his heel
Now creeps he slow; and now, with many a frisk
Wide scampering, snatches up the drifted snow
With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout,
Then shakes his powdered coat and barks for joy
Heedless of all his pranks, the sturdy churl
Moves right towards his work, nor stops for aught
But now and then, with pressure of his thumb,
To adjust the fragrant charge! of a short tube
That fumes beneath his nose; the trailing cloud
Streams far behind him, scenting all the air.
Couper.

 

THE SQUIRREL.

THE squirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play,
Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm
That age or injury hath hollowed deep,
Where, in his bed of wool and matted leaves,
He has outslept the winter, ventures forth
To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm sun:
He sees me, and at once, swift as a bird,

' Charge~load, contents. The charge in this case was
the tobacco that filled the pipe.