THE MATELESS BIRD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2149, 17 April 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MATELESS BIRD.

n F ull halt a warm and budding day , Within a little grove I lay, ( And still, from noon to oyening'B fall ; I heard a lonely wood-bird call. ,He wandered south, he wandered north, . With restleu flitting back and forth, And still his tender, 'plaining cry „ Smote on my sympathizing ear ; ,AntJ still I marked him wand'ring by, ' ' Now hurrying on, naw pausing near. .The happy birds the boughs among . i Were singing blithely as could be, i Love's bliss the theme of every song; ' But still that pensive melody 1 Upon the tranquil air would float, r A «waetly melancholy note. ' At Ja»t, for that on* aound of woe, <'.- I felt my fooluh eyes o'erflow. .1 pitied »o the birdlings grief ; . , And thus, to give my, heart relief, '"'Poor bird," I cried, "can this thing be— v H^s Nature been unfair to thee, And left thee single and forlorn ? "TYbmd&wn to eve disconsolate, Thy only task tby fate to mourn, Fore-doomed to live without a mate ? Jtf.iy, little one, it is not so ; , Somewhere, in some secluded spot, j There mourns ft little bird, I know, ' ' r As discontented with her lot ; jJTlit.on, sad heart, flit east and west. With cries still ease thy burdened breast, Fly on, fly on, fly far and fast, For thou shalt find thy mate at last." Dandridge in Southern Bivouac.