PICNICS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 312, 26 September 1908, Page 13

PICNICS.

If you met an anoient: Briton, Clad in woad and simple graces; You might think you'd less in common With this wild far-off relation, Than had Bandar-log the monkey. •Yet they both are second cousins, He with tail and he without'one. May I not attempt to prove it? Children, ere free education, Modern: clothes or sloppy cooking, Dim their palates and tneir instincts, Know a larger world than you do. Instinct prompts them not to linger In the lonely, long/ dark passage, For afar they hear the patter Of the hungry, prowling wolf pack, Growing ever nearer, louder. Breathing .at their very shoulders.. . So_ in strange unreasoning panic, .With thoir nearts uncomfortably. Situated in the thorax,; •Wildly they will rush to mother; Once more only just escaping From the . shadowy forms that follow, From the cruel eyes behind them. : Or, when, fancy free, they wander By. the stream or in-the thicket; ; Well they know, where shadows cluster," There lurk gnomes' 'and-little woodmen; While, between-the waving branches, Tiny faces grin upon them., Suddenly, across a sunbeam,V Flies with gauzy wing, a"fairy; And a splash among the rushes. Tells of water nymph or mermaid. Then, as through the flowers they scurry, Lest perchance they may espy her, Little pixies brushing by them, \ Shake their jewels from 'the harebells; Opals, : pearls, and dewy diamonds. And the thin, clear, elfin music Rises sweetly all around them. You, with so-called education, See but water rat and squirrel, Dragon-fly or stoat or weasel; Hear the busy insects buzzing. You have almost'quite 1 forgotten; But your little child is wiser, , Knows an older world than you do. Yet yoir have not quite forgotten, For at times your memory stirring Drives'you forth'from bricks and mortar, From the gaudy shell you live in. Forth from carpets, chairs, and tables, Knives and forks, and dishes scorning, Armed with sandwiches and billies, Forth you sally for a picnic. And tho onjy explanation That the wisest man can' offer, > ' Is that onco.you were a woodman, Dwelt in mossy.caves and forests; Hunted elk and .bear arid'bison, Ate them raw upon the greensward. Slept beneath the starry heavens, o 1 ew u P on your forehead. So your gaudy habitations • Seem to grow too narrow for you. Only thus can I explain you The phenomenon of picnics. • A. Do H. ROBINSON. [Wellington, 'September 16, 1908.