And patient of the flow-pac'd fwain's delay.

He from the ftack carves out th' accuftom'd load,
Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft,
His broad keen knife into the folid mass:

Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,
With fuch undeviating and even force
He fevers it away: no needlefs care,
Left storms should overfet the leaning pile
Deciduous, or its own unbalanc'd weight.
Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcern'd
The cheerful haunts of man; to wield the axe
And drive the wedge, in yonder forest drear,
From morn to eve his folitary task.

Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears
And tail cropp'd short, half lurcher and half cur-
His dog attends him. Close behind his heel

Now creeps he flow; and now, with many a frisk Wide-scamp'ring, fnatches up the drifted fnow With iv'ry teeth, or ploughs it with his fnout; Then shakes his powder'd coat, and barks for joy.

Heedlefs of all his pranks, the sturdy churl

Moves right toward the mark; nor ftops for aught,
But now and then with preffure of his thumb
T' adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube

That fumes beneath his nofe: the trailing cloud
Streams far behind him, fcenting all the air.
Now from the rooft, or from the neighb'ring pale,
Where, diligent to catch the first faint gleam
Of smiling day, they goffip'd fide by side,
Come trooping at the housewife's well-known call
The feather'd tribes domeftic. Half on wing,
And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood,
Conscious, and fearful of too deep a plunge.
The fparrows peep, and quit the fhelt'ring eaves
To feize the fair occafion. Well they eye
The scatter'd grain; and, thievishly refolv'd
T'efcape th' impending famine, often scar'd,
As oft return-a pert voracious kind,

Clean riddance quickly made, one only care
Remains to each-the fearch of funny nook,

Or fhed impervious to the blaft. Refign'd
To fad neceffity, the cock foregoes
His wonted ftrut; and, wading at their head
With well-confider'd fteps, feems to refent
His alter'd gait and stateliness retrench'd.
How find the myriads, that in fummer cheer
The hills and vallies with their ceafelefs fongs,
Due fuftenance, or where fubfift they now?
Earth yields them nought: th' imprifon'd worm is fafe
Beneath the frozen clod; all feeds of herbs

Lie cover'd clofe; and berry-bearing thorns,

That feed the thrush, (whatever fome suppose)
Afford the fmaller minstrels no fupply.

The long protracted rigour of the year

Thins all their num'rous flocks. In chinks and holes

Ten thousand feek an unmolested end,

As inftinct prompts; felf-buried, ere they die.

The very rooks and daws forfake the fields,

Where neither grub, nor root, nor earth-nut, now

Repays their labour more; and, perch'd aloft

By the way-fide, or ftalking in the path,

Lean penfioners upon the trav'ler's track,

Pick up their naufeous dole, though fweet to them,
Of voided pulfe or half-digefted grain.

The ftreams are loft amid the fplendid blank,
O'erwhelming all diftinction. On the flood,
Indurated and fixt, the fnowy weight
Lies undiffolv'd; while filently beneath,
And unperceiv'd, the current fteals away.
Not fo where, fcornful of a check, it leaps
The mill-dam, dashes on the restless wheel,
And wantons in the pebbly gulph below:
No froft can bind it there; its utmost force
Can but arreft the light and smoky mift
That in its fall the liquid fheet throws wide:
And fee where it has hung th' embroider'd banks
With forms fo various, that no pow'rs of art,
The pencil or the pen, may trace the scene!
Here glitt'ring turrets rife, upbearing high
(Fantastic mifarrangement!) on the roof

Large growth of what may feem the sparkling trees

And shrubs of fairy land. The crystal drops

That trickle down the branches, faft congeal'd,
Shoot into pillars of pellucid length,

And prop the pile they but adorn'd before.

Here grotto within grotto fafe defies

The fun-beam; there, embofs'd and fretted wild,
The growing wonder takes a thousand shapes
Capricious, in which fancy feeks in vain

The likeness of fome object feen before.
Thus nature works as if to mock at art,
And in defiance of her rival pow'rs;

By these fortuitous and random strokes
Performing fuch inimitable feats

As fhe with all her rules can never reach.

Lefs worthy of applause, though more admir'd,
Because a novelty, the work of man,
Imperial miftrefs of the fur-clad Rufs!

Thy most magnificent and mighty freak
The wonder of the North. No foreft fell