offer of twenty-five francs; and before noon, after a desperate engagement, I sold her, saddle and all, for five-and-thirty. The pecuniary gain is not obvious, but I had bought freedom into the bargain. It was not until I was fairly seated by the driver and rattling through a rocky valley with dwarf olives, that I became aware of my bereavement. I had lost Modestine. Up to that moment I had thought I hated her; but now she was gone, "And, O, The difference to me!" For twelve days we had been fast companions; we had traveled upwards of a hundred and twenty miles, crossed several respectable ridges, and jogged along with our six legs by many a rocky and many a boggy by-road. After the first day, although sometimes I was hurt and distant in manner, I still kept my patience; and as for her, poor soul! she had come to regard me as a god. She loved to eat out of my hand. She was patient, elegant in form, the colour of an ideal mouse, and inimitably small. Her faults were those of her race and sex; her virtues were her own. Farewell, and if for ever Father Adam wept when he sold her to me; after I had sold her in my turn, I was tempted to follow his example; and being alone with a stage-driver and four or five agreeable young men I did not hesitate to yield to my emotion. ROBERT OF LINCOLN M By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT ERRILY swinging on brier and weed, name: Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, Snug and safe in this nest of ours, Robert of Lincoln is gayly drest, Wearing a bright black wedding-coat; Spink, spank, spink; Look, what a nice new coat is mine, Robert of Lincoln's Quaker wife, Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings, Broods in the grass while her husband sings: Spink, spank, spink; Brood, kind creature; you need not fear Thieves and robbers while I am here. Modest and shy as a nun is she; One weak chirp is her only note. Braggart and prince of braggarts is he, Pouring boasts from his little throat: Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, Spink, spank, spink; Never was I afraid of man; Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can! Six white eggs on a bed of hay, Spink, spank, spink; Nice good wife, that never goes out, Soon as the little ones chip the shell, Spink, spank, spink; This new life is likely to be Hard for a gay young fellow like me. Robert of Lincoln at length is made Sober with work, and silent with care; Off is his holiday garment laid, Nobody knows but my mate and I Summer wanes; the children are grown; Spink, spank, spink; When you can pipe that merry old strain, I. RHYME. Chee, chee, chee. Make a table of the last words in the lines of every stanza. Arrange the table so that the indentations shall show clearly to the eye the words which rhyme. That you may understand what is meant, we append here a table for the first four stanzas: Each stanza consists of nine lines. The first four lines are descriptive and are spoken by the author. The next five lines are the bobolink's song, excepting in the last stanza, when the song is ours. The first two lines and the last line of the song are always the same. The rhymes in the descriptive quatrain alternate. Of the song, the first four lines rhyme in couplets, while the last line is unrhymed. The rhymes are also indicated to the eye at the beginning of the line as well as at the end. The first and third lines in each stanza begin at the left margin, and the second and fourth are indented. This indentation indicates the alternate rhymes. The first two lines of the bobolink's song are much more deeply indented because they are metrically shorter than the other lines; but they begin at the same point in the line, showing that they rhyme together. The same fact is true of the third and fourth lines of the song. The last line of the stanza, the shortest one in the stanza and the one that rhymes with no other, is indented beyond any other line. All are perfect rhymes, and in very few instances has Mr. Bryant made any apparent effort to force a rhyme. The word "mead," in the first stanza, is a poetic word for "meadow." The word "drest," in the second stanza, is spelled in an unusual way. Technically speaking, the bobolink has no crest, but Bryant may use the word in the second stanza in a figurative sense with prefect propriety. Perhaps those who know the bobolink's nest would object to the expression "bed of hay" (fifth stanza), as hardly doing justice to the soft bed the little birds make. We may doubt if in prose Mr. Bryant would have said that Robert of Lincoln "bestirs him well," as we find him saying in the sixth stanza. Perhaps the word "crone" in the last stanza brings out a shade of meaning that is not altogether applicable, and yet it may be what Mr. Bryant wished to say. II. METER. It is rather a difficult task to analyze the meter of this poem. The first line is dactylic, and by reading the poem we find that this is the prevailing foot; but every stanza and almost every line is varied by the introduction of different feet. In one place or another every foot appears, until one often grows confused if he stops to analyze. Taken as a whole, however, the poem is charming even in its irregularity. Let us consider the first stanza: |