VI.—NATURE-SONGS.
Reading edition
VI.—NATURE-SONGS.
THE RAINBOW.
WEATHER-RHYMES.
SNOW.
THE WIND.
THE MOON.
THE CUCKOO.
THE ROBIN AND THE WREN.
THE OWL.
MAGPIES.
WHO KILL'D COCK ROBIN.
CROWS.
PIGEONS.
LAPWING AND RINGDOVE.
THE WOOD-PIGEON.
DOMESTIC POULTRY.
DRAGON-FLIES.
THE SNAIL.
APPLES.
THE WALNUT-TREE.
THE ASH.
PEAS.
PIMPERNELL.
MARUM.
BIRD-SHOOER'S SONG.
THE GNAT.
THE TROUT.
TOBACCO.
JACK-A-DANDY.
Rhymes upon natural objects and rural sayings are perhaps more generally interesting than any other relics of the popular anthology. They not unfrequently contain scientific truths, and have been considered worthy of examination by the philosopher; while the unlearned are often contented to use them as substitutes for the barometer or Nautical Almanac. We all recollect the story of Dr. Johnson, and the boy who prophesied a shower when not a speck was to be seen in the sky. The doctor, drenched with rain, hastened back to the lad, and offered him a shilling if he would divulge the data of his prediction. "Why, you zee, zur, when that black ram holds its tail up, it be sure to rain!" The story loses none of its force when we find it in the Hundred Merry Tales, printed nearly two centuries before Dr. Johnson was born.