[Gutenberg 23454] • Sweets for Leisure Hours / Amusing Tales for Little Readers

Excerpt from Sweets for Leisure Hours

Sweet for

The Frozen Bird.

See, see, what a sweet little prize I have found!

A Robin that lay half-benumbed on the ground:

Well hous'd and well fed, in your cage you will sing,

And make our dull winter as gay as the spring.

But stay, - sure 'tis cruel, with wings made to soar,

To be shut up in prison, and never fly more -

And I, who so often have long'd for a flight,

Shall I keep you prisoner? - mamma, is that right?

No, come, pretty Robin, I must set you free -

For your whistle, though sweet, would sound sadly to me.