Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/146

140 And with delight she stores her comb,

And well her rising stock supplies.

Let sportive children well beware,

While sprightly frisking o'er the green;

And carefully avoid the snare,

Which lurks beneath the smiling scene.

The mistress bird assumes her nest,

And broods in silence on the tree,

Her note to cease, her wings at rest,

She patient waits her young to see.

The farmer hastens from the heat;

The weary plough-horse droops his head;

The cattle all at noon retreat,

And ruminate beneath the shade.

The burdened ox with dauntless rage,

Flies heedless to the liquid flood,

From which he quaffs, devoid of guage,

Regardless of his driver's rod.

Pomaceous orchards now expand

Their laden branches o'er the lea;

And with their bounty fill the land,

While plenty smiles on every tree.

On fertile borders, near the stream,

Now gaze with pleasure and delight;

See loaded vines with melons teem—

'T is paradise to human sight.