210 THE KECLUSE. 



THE GEMZE FAWN.* 



In a sunny Alpine valley 



'Neath the snowy Wetterhoni, 

 See a maiden, by a chalet, 



Playing with a Gemze* fawn. 

 How he pricks his ears to hear her, 



How his soft eyes flash with pride, 

 As she tells him he is dearer 



Than the whole wide world beside 1 

 Dearer than the lambkins gentle, 



Dearer than the frisking kids, 

 Or the pigeon on the lintel, 



Coming going as she bids. 

 Dearer than the first spring lily, 



Peeping on the snowy fell ; 

 Dearer than his little Willie 



To the heart of William Tell. 



By a gushing glacier fountain, 



On the giant Wetterhorn, 

 'Midst the snow-fields of the mountain, 



Was the little Gemze born : 

 And his mother, though the mildest 



And the gentlest of the herd, 

 Was the fleetest and the wildest, 



And as lightsome as a bird. 

 But the gazer watch'd her gliding 



In the silence of the dawn, 

 Seeking for a place of hiding, 



For her little, tender fawn ; 

 So he mark'd her, all unheeding 



(Swift and sure the bolt of death) ; 

 And he bore her, dead and bleeding, 



To his Alpine home beneath. 



* In all the German-Swiss cantons, and throughout the Tyrol, the 

 Chamois is called the " Gemze* ; " the other name, " Chamois," prevailing 

 only in those cantons in which French is spoken. 



