TALE 7
Brook Brownie, or How the Song Sparrow Got His Streaks
His Mother was the Brook and his sisters were the Reeds,
They, every one, applauded when he sang about his deeds.
His vest was white, his mantle brown, as clear as they could be,
And his songs were fairly bubbhng o'er with melody and glee.
But an envious Neighbour splashed with mud our Brownie's coat and vest.
And then a final handful threw that stuck upon his breast.
The Brook-bird's mother did her best to wash the stains away;
But there they stuck, and, as it seems, are very like to stay.
And so he wears the splashes and the mud blotch, as you see;
But his songs are bubbling over still with melody and glee.
TALE 8
Diablo and the Dogwood
What a glorious thing is the Maytime Dogwood in our woods! How it does sing out its song! More loudly and clearly it sings than any other spring flower! For it is not one, but a great chorus; and I know it is singing that "The spring, the very spring is in the land!"
I suppose if one had King Solomon's fayland ears, one might hear the Dogwood music Hke a lot of church bells pealing, like the chorus of the cathedral where Woodthrush is the preacher-priest and the Veeries make responses.
It was Adam's favourite tree, they say, in the Garden of ..text pokračuje
