Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/24

 12 An handle in the lofty beech we find,

To guide the bottom of the plough behind;

The light lime lends materials for the yoke:

Let the wood long be season'd by the smoke.

If cares less weighty move not your disdain,

Some ancient precepts I may here explain.

First then, well moulded with the hand the floor

With chalk tenacious must be harden'd o'er,

And with a roller level'd, lest the ground

Gape into chinks thro' dust, or weeds abound.

The little mouse, (such pests thy hopes defeat)

Beneath the pavement oft has fixt his seat,

There form'd his granaries; or the sightless mole,

Poking his passage, dug some lurking hole;

Nor less the toad, and all the vermin kind,

That earth abundant breeds, some hollow find:

The weasel plunders with voracious rage,

And the ant pilfers, provident of age.

When to the walnut-tree the year allows

A plenteous bloom, and bends the scented boughs,

If nuts abound, exuberant crops you'll know,

And with rich threshings your rich floor will glow:

Should shadowy leaves luxuriant spread, in vain

From sheaves of chaff you would elicit grain. Some