Fall: Poll’s Jack-Daw
Ah! Jimmy vow’d he’d have the law
Ov ouer cousin Poll’s Jack-daw,
That had by day his withy jail
A-hangen up upon a nail,
Ageaen the elem tree, avore
The house, jist over-right the door,
An’ twitted vo’k a-passen by
A-most so plain as you or I;
Vor hardly any day did pass
‘Ithout Tom’s teachen o’m zome sa’ce;
Till by-an’-by he call’d em all
‘Soft-polls’ an’ ‘gawkeys,’ girt an’ small.
An’ zoo, as Jim went down along
The leaene a-whisslen ov a zong,
The saucy Daw cried out by rote
“Girt Soft-poll!” lik’ to split his droat.
Jim stopp’d an’ grabbled up a clot,
An’ zent en at en lik’ a shot;
An’ down went Daw an’ cage avore
The clot, up thump ageaen the door.
Zoo out run Poll an’ Tom, to zee
What all the meaenen o’t mid be;
“Now who did that?” zaid Poll. “Who whurr’d
Theaese clot?” “Girt Soft-poll!” cried the bird.
An’ when Tom catch’d a glimpse o’ Jim,
A-looken all so red an’ slim,
An’ slinken on, he vled, red hot,
Down leaene to catch en, lik’ a shot;
But Jim, that thought he’d better trust
To lags than vistes, tried em vu’st.
An’ Poll, that zeed Tom woulden catch
En, stood a-smilen at the hatch.
An’ zoo he vollow’d en for two
Or dree stwones’ drows, an’ let en goo.
Other works by William Barnes...
