SOME MISCHIEF-MAKERS Hoa 
O JAY! 
O Jay! 
Blue Jay! 
What are you trying to say? 
I remember, in the spring 
You pretended you could sing; 
But your voice is now still queerer, 
And as yet you’ve come no nearer 
To a song. 
In fact, to sum the matter, 
I never heard a flatter 
Failure than your doleful clatter. 
Don’t you think it’s wrong? 
It was sweet to hear your note, 
I'll not deny, 
When April set pale clouds afloat 
O’er the blue tides of sky. 
And ’mid the wind’s triumphant drums 
You in your white and azure coat, 
A herald proud, came forth to cry, 
“The royal summer comes !”’ 
* * * * * * 
Sometimes your piping is delicious, 
And then again it’s simply vicious; 
Though on the whole the varying jangle 
Weaves round me an entrancing tangle 
Of memories grave or joyous: 
Things to weep or laugh at; 
Love that lived at a hint, or 
Days so sweet they’d cloy us. 
Nights I have spent with friends : — 
Glistening groves of winter, 
And the sound of vanished feet 
That walked by the ripening wheat: 
* * * x * * 
