The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1884-02-06
For the T. 4 M.-Household.
Extract from 'Tale Of Buck
Forest"

The fleetest dogs their speed have tried,
And still the stag uprears hi. head.
And proudly scorns their utmost speed.
For many mile have those fleet limbs
Sped onward, like the rushing wind
And now the crystal-ford. is crossed,
\ moment in the wood he's lost.
Then merging from the tangled brake,
Still on he rushes in the race;
When straight before his startled gaze.
a huntsman's deadly weapon 5 raised ;
The death-shOt flies with lightning
speed,
The noble stag falls to his knees;
Then gathering all his failing strength,
Begins anew a race with death.
Ger the hill he onward bounds,
Behind ale heard the distant hounds,
Along the river. margin green,
His sleek, brown form moments seen;
While from his wound the life blood
teens,
Again he plunges in the stream;
His spark of life will scarce suffice,
To bear him to the other side;
His kingly step has lost its spring,
Free. wildwood grace forsakes each
limb;
In dump despair that none may tell,
He creepS into a lonely dell;
La silence there to meet his doom
Amid the laurel-curtain gloom;
The race IN done; his last vain effort
DER.
He trembling. forward falls to rise no
more.
The royal couch by nature spread.
Fresh. green and moist beneath his
head;
Receives the gushing crimson life,
And hides it meath her tlowrcts bright.
His painting breath is failing fast,
Hi. wistful gaze is upward cast,
AS tho he Graves Protecting Power
Would shield him in this evil hour.
\ ct once he lifted that stately head,
To list the horseman's sounding tread !;
Tears almost human fill his eyes.
And then he droopes hi. head and dies.
Oh, cruel. wanton. ruthless man.
The helpless shrink at thy command;
Monarch of all beneath the skies,
How rarely pity dimns thine eyes.
The tirlid hare thy footstep breads.
And steals away to hide her head
The smallest insect fears thine eye.
The feathered songsters from thee fly,
l. tC lt UOlNl. llldJ VI 6tN CS llic IIelG
OF midday sun. will take his flight
When from some lofty crag he spies
Thy crouching form. and conquering
eyes /;
The wild flower crushed beneath thy
tread.
The giant monarch of primeval wood,
Whose towering strength a thousand
storms withstoOd.
His lofty head with freshest beauty
crowned,
At thy tell stroke lies level with the
ground;
And cen inhuman wrath by vengence
led.
| Uplifts thy haud brothers blood to
| shed;
Tho undeserved mercy. all thy plea,
Before a justly anse:ed Deity.
| Sure He whose all creative power
Made earth and sea and fragile flower
Whose providence provides place
| For bird and beast and human race;
| Whose voice can still the raging sea,
Whose hand doth feed the tiny bee;
Who heeds the raven. plaintiye call,
And sees the smallest sparrow fall;
Would have his creatures mercy show
To fellow man, and all below;
And ne'er in sport or anger take
The life no art can e'er replace.
But little recked they in the chase,
OF PHYS tear. or mercy's voice;
And now thy wind the signal blast.
That calls each huntsman from hi
post:
| n u-I,o,, 10 60 toll fe 4
The fallen deer they cluster round.
A huntsman's buckhorn hlted blade,
Clean. polished bright and ready made
An instant glitters IN the light,
An instant more sinks out of sight.
Plunged deep and true with practice
aim.
Behind the check with tears still stain
ed.
The dogs come troopiag to the spot,
With dripping limbs and tongues hun
out;
Old Pluto" casts his head aside,
And views his mornings work wit
pride;
The lesser dogs with manners rude.
Press round the deer and lick his bloc,
One huntsman walls his sad mishap.
An tells how his "old rifle snapped /;
Another shows with conscious pride,
Where his own ball has ''grazed Il
hide -
With mental eye he weighs his form,
Then counts the branches on his horl
And tells now on Christmas past
When snow was falling thick and fas
a stag ike this his dogs had found,
Not far from" Pickle Simon's farm,
And sod him fill tho SIM wont down
= Old ''Craff' tells how each hound b
= haved.
} How Venus limped and Vulcan .tra
ed"