Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/87

 Book III. A shaggy vest nor vainly do they bear,

Nor boast their chins an useless length of hair;

With their shorn bristles camps are oft supply'd,

And sailors find a raiment in their hide.

On brakes and bushes of the mountain ground

Browsing, thro' thickets and on hills they bound.

Returning with their kids the female train

Lift o'er the threshold their big dugs with pain.

The less your aid they call, do you with care

Screen them the more from cold and frosty air,

Food, and fresh twigs attentive to provide;

Nor all the wintry months your fodder hide.

Soon as the Zephyrs the glad summer lead,

In lawns and pastures give both kinds to feed.

When first bright Lucifer salutes the view,

Crop the cool herbage, while the morn is new,

While the grass whitens, and the dew is seen,

Grateful to flocks, bespangling all the green.

When the fourth hour a parching thirst shall bring,

And with shrill music all the copsies sing,

To wells or pools be all your cattle sent

In troughs to drink the limpid element;

But let them, panting in the midday heat,

Seek in some darksome dell a safe retreat, Where-