128 



BOB WHITE. 



Who's whistling so cheerfully down in the clover, 



When the meadows are wet with the sweet morning dew? 

 He's piping and calling, this ardent young lover, 



And telling his tale the whole morning through, 

 What is it he says in the early sunlight ? 



"Bob White I Bob White! 

 Bob Bob White !" 



At noon, when the day god in wrath has descended, 



With his swift golden arrows, on grain-field and hill ; 

 And the birds of the morning their love songs have ended, 



Then deep in the wood, and down by the rill 

 I hear a shrill whistle, so cheerful and bright : 

 "Wheat ripe ? Bob White ! 

 Not not quite !" 



When shadows of evening are lengthening slowly, 



Ere the night dews lie damp on the meadows again ; 

 As light breezes sweep o'er the soft grass so lowly, 



What is it he says ? I hear the refrain, 

 While in the thick verdure he's hid from my sight: 

 "Good night ! Bob White ! 

 Good good night." 



Erne L. Hallett. 



It might almost be said that the birds The very idea of a bird is a symbol 



are all birds of the poets and of no and a suggestion to the poet. A bird 



one else, because it is only the poetical seems to be at the top of the scale, so 



temperament .that fully responds to vehement and intense is his life large- 



them. So true is this, that all the great brained, large-lunged, hot, ecstatic, 



ornithologists original namers and his frame charged with buoyancy and 



biographers of the birds have been his heart with song. The beautiful 



poets in deed if not in word. Audubon vagabonds, endowed with every grace, 



is a notable case in point, who, if he masters of all chimes, and knowing no 



had not the tongue or pen of the poet, bounds how many human aspirations 



certainly had the eye and ear and heart are realized in their free, holiday lives, 



and the singleness of purpose, the en- and how many suggestions to the poet 



thusiasm, the unworldliness, the love, in their flight and song ! 



that characterize the true and divine John Burroughs 



race of bards. in "Birds and Poets." 



