MEDITATIONS ON A STUMP.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 226, 10 January 1885, Page 13

MEDITATIONS ON A STUMP.

(Written for the Observer.) 'The Pohutukawa blooms again on Kerikeri side, And robes the giddy precipice in all its crimson pride ; ■On Piah's frowning battlements it braved the wintry storm, And now beneath the genial sun — (Oh thunder ! ain't it warm !) The hands have all gone up to town to keep their Christmas Day — Save one, whose unaffected tastes led quite another way ; Here, where the sylvan, mystic bush, shuts out the sultry skies, a 1 love to court its solitudes, and — (Curse these horrid flies !) "*Tis not that I, with cynic scowl, would shun my fellowinan, Or strive like canting Puritan their merry sports to ban, Or frown upon the fairer sex ; although they use me rough, I love to languish in their smiles, or — (Oh-h ! — that heavy duff !) The busy mill refraineth from its too-tumultou clank, And drowsy Morpheus seems to sit on shaft, and wheel, and crank ; The sturdy " jack " neglected lies beside the ponderous log, .And where the lofty kauris rise — (I wish I had some grog !) JNo sound comes on the atmosphere to break the magic spell, Save bell-bird's tuneful note from yonder kowhai dell, .As here I sit and muse within the silent timberyard, . 'The mother voice of Nature tells — (This stump is getting hard !) Ah well ! — to-day is Christmas Day, long-looked for, come at last, Jh. few more blissful hours, and then its festive glory's past ; Mil high the wassail ! drain the bowl — nor one sweet moment lose, To peace on earth, goodwill towards man — (I think I'll take a snooze.) Flabbie, Kerikeri, Dee, 25.