Anonymous

“ Then they boast of the flowers, the pepper, and maize,
And give one accounts of the natives’ strange ways:
If a man be annoy’d by his neighbour, they say,
He will take his plantation and row it away.
The trees are luxuriant, the mora, whose size
Fills the wanderer’s mind with delight and surprise;
The ebony, green-heart, and letter-wood tree,
The locust and parasite fig you may see;
On the Concourite’s branch Ara parrots assemble,
Whose blue and red feathers the rainbow resemble. ”

“ Bursts at once o’er their heads, and o’erwhelms them with wonder!
His danger by instinct each quadruped knows,
Now confusion has taken the place of repose:
The bears shake their coats, and roll off with a growl,
Wolves, dogs, wolverenes, scamper off in full howl. ”

“ They are endless the wonders of shallow and deep,
But I spare you the list, you are falling asleep.”
The rest of the party amused themselves well,
Seeking insects and fruits in each dingle and dell:
Some stroll’d in the shade, others bask’d in the sun,
Whilst some with the cubs had a good game of fun.
[p22]
The much injured hedgehog was hunting for plants,
The ant-bears, both greater and lesser, caught ants;
With their long slimy tongues hanging out from the mouth,
Though they thought they preferr’d the great grubs of the south. ”

“ Tiny field mouse, that turn’d up nose vixen the shrew,
The harvest mouse, fresh from a settler’s rick,
Were condemn’d by the great ones as not of their clique;
These reclined round a mole hill, and each dipp’d his paw
In a cocoa-nut bowl fill’d with rice, “en pillau.”
And the harvest mouse took most exceeding great pains
To squeak them a stanza in honour of grains.
[p24]
MOUSE’S SONG.
“An ear of corn, a grain of rice,
Banquet rich for simple mice;
A leaf his bed, a hole his house,
Who could hurt a harmless mouse? ”

“ Now he takes from the fish-hawk his newly caught prey,
And with speed to the forest he bears it away;
Whilst the wood is alive with a feathery throng,
Who from morning till night fill the air with their song. ”

“ Neither pride, pomp, nor envy, have ever been there;
[p7]
Here Nature resides—nothing human is seen;
Foot of man hath not pass’d o’er that prairie I ween,
Unless some few wandering Indians have pass’d—
Of their sorrowing tribe perhaps nearly the last.
I should fail to describe in a picturesque manner
The splendid repose of that grassy Savanna;
Tall shadows swept out from the forest of pine, }
The site was a fair one, the weather so fine, }
That even a quadruped thought it divine. }
To this wild grassy spot, on the long look’d for day,
Merry parties of beasts made the best of their way ”

“ At extracting the root, whether square root, or round.
Some beavers complain’d of that biped call’d man,
Who does to their race all the harm that he can,
Some of whom, not long since, came to kidnap and pillage
The whole of their neighbouring water-bound village,
And they guess’d the snake-Indians caught many a score,
To stew down the tails for their great Sagamore.
The hedgehog, who always lies snug in his nest,
Till his fourfooted neighbours betake them to rest,
[p13]
Now changed his old custom for once in a way,
Unroll’d his warm nose, and came forth in the day. ”

“ Whilst the seal scrambles home with her cub pic-a-back.
Sir Hans Armadillo, coil’d up in a ball,
From the edge of a precipice lets himself fall;
Being arm’d “cap-à-pie,” he rolls safely away,
And lives, without doubt, in his hole to this day. ”

“ Then venison “en câche,” maize, wild rice, and, to boot,
Guavas, cranberries, mangoes, grapes, shaddock, breadfruit!
Here they sate and discuss’d the magnificent fare
Which the glutton had superintended with care.
[p27]
The monkeys in helping were very officious,
The bears suck’d their paws, and pronounced it delicious. ”

“ The “Quadrupeds’ Pic-Nic” is a very humble imitation of Mrs. Dorset’s “Peacock at Home.” Even in my imitation I find I am not original. The Quadrupeds, it appears, have already had an “Elephants’ Ball,” and a “Lions’ Masquerade.”
F. B. C.
[p5]
THE QUADRUPEDS’ PIC-NIC.
NO doubt you have heard how the grasshoppers’ feasts
“Excited the spleen of the birds and the beasts;”
How the peacock and turkey “flew into a passion,”
On finding that insects “pretended to fashion.”
Now, I often have thought it exceedingly hard,
That nought should be said of the beasts by the bard ”