Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/109

 Howls of babes, the drunken father's damning,
 * Counter-cursing of the shrill-tongued wife.

Children feebly crying on their mother
 * In a wailful chorus—"Give us food!"

Man and woman glaring at each other
 * Like two gaunt wolves with a famished brood.

Till he snatched a stick, and, madly staring,
 * Struck her blow on blow upon the head;

And she, reeling back, gasped, hardly caring—
 * "Ah, you've done it now, Jim"—and was dead.

Dead—dead—dead—the miserable creature—
 * Never to feel hunger's cruel fang

Wring the bowels of rebellious nature
 * That her infants might be spared the pang.

"Dead! Good luck to her!" The man's teeth chattered,
 * Stone-still stared he with blank eyes and hard,

Then, his frame with one big sob nigh shattered,
 * Fled—and cut his throat down in the yard.

H