BIRDS ftND NATURE 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Vol. XVI. JUNE 1904. No. 



A SONG OF CLOVER. 



I wonder what the Clover thinks — 

 Intimate friend of Bob-o'-links, 

 Lover of Daisies slim and white, 

 Waltzer with Buttercups at night ; 

 Keeper of Inn for traveling Bees, 

 Serving to them wine dregs and lees, 

 Left by the Royal Humming Birds, 

 Who sip and pay with finespun words ; 

 Fellow with all the^ lowliest, 

 Peer of the gayest and the best ; 

 Comrade of winds, beloved of sun, 

 Kissed by the Dewdrops, one by one ; 

 Prophet of Good-Luck mystery 

 By sign of four which few may see ; 

 Symbol of Nature's magic zone, 

 One out of three, and three in one ; 

 Emblem of comfort in the speech 

 Which poor men's babies early reach ; 

 Sweet by the roadsides, sweet by rills, 

 Sweet in the meadows, sweet on hills, 

 Sweet in its white, sweet in its red — 

 O, half of its sweetness cannot be said — 

 Sweet in its every living breath, 

 Sweetest, perhaps, at last in death ! 

 O, who knows what the Clover thinks? 

 No one ! unless the Bob-o'-links ! 



'Saxe Holm. j 



