To seek her spouse. “Our Kate, my dear, “Will change her bed that she may hear “The nightingale, and sleep more cool.” “Wife,” said the good man, “You're a fool, “And Kate too with her nightingale; “Don't tell me such a foolish tale. “She must remain. No doubt to-night “Will fresher be. I sleep all right “In spite of heat, and so can she. “Is she more delicate than me?” Incensed was Kate by this denial After so promising a trial, Nor would be beat, but firmly swore To give more trouble than before. That night again no wink she slept But groaned and fretted, sighed and wept, Upon her couch so tossed and turned, The anxious mother quite concerned Again her husband sought. “Our Kate “To me seems greatly changed of late. “You are unkind,” she said to him, “To thwart her simple, girlish whim. “Why may she not her bed exchange, “In naught will it the house derange? “Placed in the passage she's as near “To us as were she lying here. “You do not love your child, and will “With your unkindness make her ill.” “Pray cease,” the husband cried, “to scold “And take your whim. I ne'er could hold “My own against a screaming wife; “You'll drive me mad, upon my life. “Her belly-full our Kate may get “Of nightingale or of linnet.” The thing was settled. Kate obeyed, And in a trice her bed was made, And lover signalled. Who shall say How long to both appeared that day, That tedious day! But night arrived And Richard too; he had contrived By ladder, and a servant's aid, To reach the chamber of the maid. To tell how often they embraced, How changed in form their tenderness, Would lead to nothing but a waste Of time, my readers will confess. The longest, most abstruse discourse Would lack precision, want the force Their youthful ardour to portray. To understand there's but one way-- Experience. The nightingale Sang all night long his pleasing tale, And though he made but little noise, The lass was satisfied. Her joys So exquisite that she averred The other nightingale, the bird Who warbles to the woods his bliss, Was but an ass compared with this. But nature could not long maintain Of efforts such as these the strain; Their forces spent, the lovers twain In fond embrace fell fast asleep Just as the dawn began to peep: The father as he left his bed