V 
Chickadee 
ae a a ~ 
ONcE (it was a good while ago, when I was a boy), I 
tried to write a poem. The first stanza ran: — 
I heard him when the reeds were young 
Along a clover sea ; 
Above the purple waves he hung, 
And o’er the fragrant waters flung 
His storm of ecstasy; 
and the last stanza ran :— 
He’s left the meadows burnt and hot, 
He’s left me lone and drear ; 
But still within the white-birch lot 
Cheeps Chickadee — whom I forgot 
While Bobolink was here; 
74 
