Ossian Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

238 HEBRIDIAN SKETCHES.
His mighty shoulders, with his out-stretched hands.
The stripling crouches near the sheltering rock,
And scarcely dares to face the stifling blast,
When he looks out with dim and watery eye.
To see his cows have not gone straggling home ;
But they oft, moaning, look impatiently
Over the empty and the silent fields,
To where the hamlet smokes, the milkmaid sings,
And wish themselves on their snug couch of straw.
Afar the seagull, in the cold blue sky,
Floats on the wind with wond'rous elegance,
And seeks the inland shelter all tlie day.
Broad and strong-winged the glittering solan wheels
A restless course above the ocean plain.
And sometimes rushes down into the deep.
Like a white stone flung from the firmaments.
Tall on his rock the hardy cormorant stands.
Or plunges cheerily in the hissing foam ;
While near the house the sparrows cliatter loud,
And all the small birds in the chill bare fields,
Look quite uneasy with sad ruffled plumes.
The barn-door fowls keep near their cosy roost —
The hens come gathering early round the door.
And draw together to keep off the cold;
While the ducks clamour in the chilly ooze —
The colder it the more their merriment.
Sometimes a frenzy seems to fill their breast,
And they rush wildly o'er the muddy pond.
Or up and down the feather-floating burn.
Clapping their wings, and harshly screaming out
With uncontrollable and noisy glee.
The large white gander, with unspotted plume.
He leads his family abroad as wont.
Sometimes to feed upon the russet fields,
Sometimes to float upon the ice-like lake.
A wary leader is yon patriarch bird.
Of solemn gait, but monstrous vanity —