A BALL.D OF NONSENSE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 59

A BALL.D OF NONSENSE.

When farmers knew little of 11p-to-d.lt e art, And toiled for the sake of the roots that they found, And hunted the wood? with a primitive dart, And battered a itump lor the sake oi its Found, They didn't know much. Yet I fancy they knew A thing or two more that 1 our scientists do. The mocm was a something— they didn't know what — * That came in tho daik, so they called it the Queen Of the stars and the night (which is all tommy ret). _ Tho3e primitive farmere were all very green, And scientists smile. Yet the root-eating ex cw Felt satisfied then, as Darwinians do. Iho leaves of the wood were the roof of their lodge, Ar>d when tho wild beasts of their time would allow They slept — for they hadn't a mortgage to dodge. And bailiffs were rare as the throe-furrowed plough. Those primitive farmers the solid year through S;ept sounder by far than n-Oot townspeople do. They 3cented their fiiends and their foes in the breeze, When, hungry, they watched for their breakfast to pass (A venison feast) through the chinkß of the trees, And no oae suggested cathedral glass; The:r cravings were served by the little they knev.- — What more can the skill of a scientist do? They talked with their hands; and their wife, be it said, Was never once seen at a "clearing-out" sale ; Their hat was the hair on the top of their head, They drank at the stream, for they hadn't a pail To cany tho water, and yet it is true They thusted and drank like the most of vis do. We wouldn't for anything change with the man Wlio bartered hia roots for the nuts of tho ape; Who couldn't make cash on the syndicate plan, Or wine,- without first having gathered tho grape. We wouldn't, for worlds— yet this ignorant cuss Of tho primitive wood 3 might object be to us. — J Maclexxan. Te Kohunga, August, 1902.