POETRY.
"KIDNAPPED :" AN ALLEGORY.
WE were five in one nest ; Warm and soft was our home, With its lichen-capp'd dome, By bramble and briar caress'd ; And all day and night, While the sun glowered hot, Or the dreamy noon shot Each leaf with a tremor of light, Mother brooded us there, Heart to heart, down and feather Close cuddled together, And not a gnat's foothold for care.
Father, too, did his part, From dawn to dusk winging His hunter-flight, singing To ease the tense joy of his heart.
And anon we would flit In and out through the tangle Of boughs, to the brangle Of starlings exploiting their wit ; We flouted the cat As she stealthily crept Up the tree where we slept ; We were too wary-watchful for that !
And the magpie in vain Kept a masterly hush In his dense thorny bush ; We viewed his stale tricks with disdain.
Oh, how sweet was life then !
When pain was all mystery, When mirth was our history, And love the Home-rale of our glen !
But one dewy morn, When blies awoke lightest, When hope was at brightest, Our life's bitter trial was born : For Jenny our pride, By base villain rase And the mistletoe's juice, Was cruelly ref t from our side.
With bars they enthrall Her free maiden wings ;- And her very heartstrings Are weeping the tears she lets fall : And ah 1 how we fear In the false modish city Her sweet woodland ditty Will lose the true cadence of old !
GEORGE S. W. KERSHAW.
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