THE LEGEND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3885, 28 August 1928, Page 72

THE LEGEND.

It Is Pan who watches the mountain goats, And all the little wild sheep; He calls—and they answer from shaggy throats; He pipes—and they follow his springtime notes "Where the paths are rough and steep. They need no shepherd with staff and crook, They need no sheltering fold; For Pan doth lead them up river and brook. To fir tree shadow, and "Violet nook, With a wisdom ages old. The beloved over-Lord said to him In the days when change began, *' Far, far up from the mountain’s rim. And into the cloud-mist purple and dim. Call my fearless flocks, O Pan I ” •' They are all away, that you used to know — Save only Puck o’ the hill.— The Dryads are lost with the last year’s snow, The Fauns have gone where the swallows go, Or the ripples that pass the mill.” “You are brother-in-half to my untamed things; You are kin to the free and wild ; On each hoof you wear invisible wings, From a reed you can make a flute that sings ; Your heart is the heart of a child.” So my mountain goats and little wild sheep, I will leave them. Pan. with you ; You shall pipe them awake, and pipe them asleep, And every one of them you shall keep. Where the hills are high and blue! ” And if they see him—Well! Who is it cares? Or if they love him—Who knows? But he calls —and they climb the rocky stairs; He pipes—and they follow where no man dares, — And never a traveller goes ! —Virna Sheard, in the Ottawa Journal.