In the little letter which accompanied the stanzas which follow the writer said:
My mamma has written some verses for my little brother and sister and myself, and I think they are very sweet. Mamma has been very sick, and not able to read or write for eight years, and she had to write these verses by FEELING, as she can not look over and write them. I am eight years old, and my home is in Eatonton, Georgia. My name is
I drove them down to the meadow, Dolly and Dilly and Kate, And my steps like theirs grew quicker As we neared the pasture gate;
For beneath the shade of a cedar, Where no clover ever grew, I had built a MASTER bird-trap, And set the trigger true.
I knew a little redbird Whose feathers every one Were as bright as the juice of a berry, Or the stain of the setting sun.
My heart went patter, patter, As I thrust my fingers through The trap that held a captive Where the gnarled old cedar grew.
My heart beat like the rain-drops, And (the redbird in my thought) I felt a fluttering winglet, And cried, "You're caught! you're caught!"
But alas for the dreams of childhood! The bird was only gray; And with angry frown and feature I tossed it far away.
That night beside my mother I told my grief with tears, And I've not forgot her answer Through all these weary years.
She said: "Oh, little Richard, The bird with the homely coat Has all the sweetest music Of the forest in its throat!
"And never forget, my darling, As life you travel through, That some of its sweetest blessings May gray-coated come to you."
LITTLE COMPTON, POINT SEACONNET, RHODE ISLAND.
I wanted my mamma to write to you when I was in Troy, but I had not any pets to write about, and my mamma told me to wait till I got to the sea-shore.
Now we are here. The ocean is all around us except on one side. We are on the lowest part of Rhode Island, on a point reaching away out into the ocean. I am almost the only little girl, as there is only one other here. She is May Kempton, and she lives here always.
May has five kittens. One kitten has double paws, and three kittens have two to three toes more than they ought to have, and one kitten is like all other kittens. There are a great many interesting things about here, but my mamma says I must not tell about too many at a time. Captain Williams is the lobster man, and once in a while he takes us out sailing in his vessel. It will hold about twelve people. His arms are all tattooed, and he tells very nice stories about shipwrecks. I am trying to learn the names of all the sails, and to "box the compass." I am going to a Rhode Island clam-bake. In my next letter I will tell you about some real live decoy-ducks.