Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/24

 

An handle in the lofty beech we find, 205
To guide the bottom of the plough behind;
The light lime lends materials for the yoke:
Let the wood long be season'd by the smoke.

If cares less weighty move not your disdain,
Some ancient precepts I may here explain. 210
First then, well moulded with the hand the floor
With chalk tenacious must be harden'd o'er,
And with a roller level'd, lest the ground
Gape into chinks thro' dust, or weeds abound.
The little mouse, (such pests thy hopes defeat) 215
Beneath the pavement oft has fixt his seat,
There form'd his granaries; or the sightless mole,
Poking his passage, dug some lurking hole;
Nor less the toad, and all the vermin kind,
That earth abundant breeds, some hollow find: 220
The weasel plunders with voracious rage,
And the ant pilfers, provident of age.
When to the walnut-tree the year allows
A plenteous bloom, and bends the scented boughs,
If nuts abound, exuberant crops you'll know, 225
And with rich threshings your rich floor will glow:
Should shadowy leaves luxuriant spread, in vain
From sheaves of chaff you would elicit grain.

Some