BEASTS

ALL BUT BLIND

All but blind
     In his cambered hole
Gropes for worms
     The four-clawed Mole.

All but blind
     In the evening sky
The hooded Bat
     Twirls softly by.

All but blind
     In the burning day
The Barn-Owl blunders
     On her way.

And blind as are
     These three to me,
So blind to someone
     I must be.

FIVE EYES

In Hans' old Mill his three black cats
     Watch the bins for the thieving rats.
Whisker and claw, they crouch in the night,
     Their five eyes smouldering green and bright:
Squeaks from the flour sacks, squeaks from where
     The cold wind stirs on the empty stair,
Squeaking and scampering, everywhere.
     Then down they pounce, now in, now out,
At whisking tail, and sniffing snout;
     While lean old Hans he snores away
Till peep of light at break of day;
     Then up he climbs to his creaking mill,
Out come his cats all grey with meal --
     Jekkel, and Jessup, and one-eyed Jill.

TIT FOR TAT

Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?
     Have you snared a weeping hare?
Have you whistled, 'No Nunny,'and gunned a poor
          bunny,
     Or a blinded bird of the air?

Have you trod like a murderer through the green
          woods,
     Through the dewy deep dingles and glooms,
While every small creature screamed shrill to Dame
          Nature,
     'He comes --and he comes!'?

Wonder I very much do, Tom Noddy,
     If ever, when you are a-roam,
An Ogre from space will stoop a lean face
     And lug you home:

Lug you home over his fence, Tom Noddy,
     Of thorn-sticks nine yards high,
With your bent knees strung round his old iron gun
     And your head dan-dangling by:

And hang you up stiff on a hook, Tom Noddy,
     From a stone-cold pantry shelf,
Whence your eyes will glare in an empty stare,
     Till you're cooked yourself!

THE PIGS AND THE CHARCOAL - BURNER

The old Pig said to the little pigs,
'In the forest is truffles and mast,
Follow me then, all ye little pigs,
Follow me fast!'

The Charcoal-burner sat in the shade
With his chin on his thumb,
And saw the big Pig and the little pigs,
Chuffling come.

He watched 'neath a green and giant bough,
And the pigs in the ground
Made a wonderful grizzling and gruzzling
And a greedy sound.

And when, full-fed they were gone, and Night
Walked her starry ways,
He stared with his cheeks in his hands
At his sullen blaze.