I will _yark_ off. Said an underkeeper who had just shot at a
snipe: "It _yarked_ up and screeted, and I nipped round and blazed; but
I catched my toe on a bit of a tussock, and so, consarn it, I missed."
Let me hope that I have not so completely failed in my aim, while firing
my small shot against certain abuses and disuses connected with The
Vulgar Tongue.
THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD WITH HIS SON
[Sidenote: _Calverley_]
O what harper could worthily harp it,
Mine Edward! this wide-stretching wold
(Look out _wold_) with its wonderful carpet
Of emerald, purple, and gold?
Look well at it--also look sharp, it
Is getting so cold.
The purple is heather _(erica)_;
The yellow, gorse--call'd sometimes "whin."
Cruel boys on its pickles might spike a
Green beetle as if on a pin,
You may roll in it, if you would like a
Few holes in your skin.
You wouldn't? Then think of how kind you
Should be to the insects who crave
Your compassion--and then, look behind you
At yon barley-ears! Don't they look brave
As they undulate _(undulate_, mind you,
From _unda, a wave_).
The noise of those sheep-bells, how faint it
Sounds here--(on account of our height)!
And this hillock itself--who could paint it,
With its changes of shadow and light?
Is it not---(never, Eddy, say "ain't it")--
A marvellous sight?
Then yon desolate eerie morasses,
The haunts of the snipe and the hern--
(I shall question the two upper classes
On _aquatiles_ when we return)--
Why, I see on them absolute masses
Of _felix_, or fern.
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