Littell's Living Age/Volume 173/Issue 2236/The Pick of the Whelps

by Albert Francis Cross

       A PICTURE AND AN ALLEGORY

A red-roofed barn, with open door;
Gold strawy litter on the floor;
A wire-haired terrier lying by;
Six short-tailed puppies romping nigh;
The farmer’s son, just turned sixteen;
A keeper, in brown velveteen;
A rough-shod ploughboy standing near
In quilted smock, a knowing leer
O’er-spreading all his rosy face.
Accessories about the place,
Fowls, bags of grain, the keeper’s dog,
A gorse-hook, chips and chopping-log —
All these, and what your taste doth snore
Desire, are there in seemly store.
But to complete the simple scene
The central figure must, I ween,
Be pictured now — a little maid,
With sad, wet eyes, who seems afraid
To lose but one of all her pets —
The child of tears and vain regrets!