FRUIT OF OLD.
11
Hand-pick, and ram with solid concrete o'er;
Lest weeds steal through, or drought make dusty breach—
For then a thousand foes will over-reach:
Ofttimes the subterranean tiny mouse 210
Constructs his barn and keeps his private house,
Or wall-eyed moles have scoop'd their bedrooms deep,
And squatter toad sits in a chink asleep:
The myriad monsters teeming earth affords,
And weevils foul make boot upon thy hoards: 215
The pile diminishes, while emmets sage
Provide against the bankruptcy of age.
Mark too what time the forest hazel trims
Her hood with flowers, and curves her fragrant limbs,
If bloom abound, so shall the season's wheat, 220
And mighty threshing come with mighty heat:
But if rank foliage shade the better half,
The thresher then shall pound away at chaff.
Full many a careful sower have I known
To drug and soak the seed before 'twas sown, 225
With nitre and black lees of oil, to swell
The kernel in the too deceitful shell:
Lest weeds steal through, or drought make dusty breach—
For then a thousand foes will over-reach:
Ofttimes the subterranean tiny mouse 210
Constructs his barn and keeps his private house,
Or wall-eyed moles have scoop'd their bedrooms deep,
And squatter toad sits in a chink asleep:
The myriad monsters teeming earth affords,
And weevils foul make boot upon thy hoards: 215
The pile diminishes, while emmets sage
Provide against the bankruptcy of age.
Mark too what time the forest hazel trims
Her hood with flowers, and curves her fragrant limbs,
If bloom abound, so shall the season's wheat, 220
And mighty threshing come with mighty heat:
But if rank foliage shade the better half,
The thresher then shall pound away at chaff.
Full many a careful sower have I known
To drug and soak the seed before 'twas sown, 225
With nitre and black lees of oil, to swell
The kernel in the too deceitful shell:
