Page:Eclogues; a book of poems.djvu/20

 CHILDHOOD

II

THE FARM is distant from the high-road half a mile;

The child of the farm

does not realise it for several years;

He wanders through the orchard,

finds mushrooms in the paddock,

or beetles in the pond.

But one day he goes to the high-road,

sees carts and carriages pass,

and men go marketing.

A traction-engine crashes into his vision

with flame and smoke,

and makes his eager soul retreat.

He turns away:

The huntsmen are galloping over the fields,

Their red coats and the swift whimpering hounds,

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