'Selected guests selected phrases claim: 'Nor reigns that joy when hand in hand they join 'That good old Master felt in shaking mine. 'HEAVEN bless his memory! bless his honour'd name! '(The poor will speak his lasting worthy fame:) 'To souls fair-purpos'd strength and guidance give; 'In pity to us still let goodness live: 'Let labour have its due! my cot shall be 'From chilling want and guilty murmurs free: 'Let labour have its due;... then peace is mine, 'And never, never shall my heart repine.' AUTUMN. ARGUMENT. _Acorns. Hogs in the wood. Wheat-sowing. The Church. Village girls. The mad girl. The bird-boy's hut. Disappointments; reflections, &c. Euston-hall. Fox-hunting. Old Trouncer. Long nights. A welcome to Winter._ [Illustration] AUTUMN. III. Again, the year's _decline_, midst storms and floods, The thund'ring chase, the yellow fading woods, Invite my song; that fain would boldly tell Of upland coverts, and the echoing dell, By turns resounding loud, at eve and morn The swineherd's halloo, or the huntsman's horn. No more the fields with scatter'd grain supply The restless wand'ring tenants of the STY; From oak to oak they run with eager haste, And wrangling share the first delicious taste Of fallen ACORNS; yet but thinly found Till the strong gale have shook them to the ground. It comes; and roaring woods obedient wave: Their home well pleas'd the joint adventurers leave: The trudging sow leads forth her numerous young, Playful, and white, and clean, the briars among, Till briars and thorns increasing, fence them round, Where last year's mould'ring leaves bestrew the ground, And o'er their heads, loud lash'd by furious squalls, Bright from their cups the rattling treasure falls; Hot thirsty food; whence doubly sweet and cool The welcome margin of some rush-grown pool, The wild duck's lonely haunt, whose jealous eye Guards every point; who sits prepar'd to fly, On the calm bosom of her little lake, Too closely screen'd for ruffian winds to shake; And as the bold intruders press around, At once she starts, and rises with a bound: With bristles rais'd the sudden noise they hear, And ludicrously wild, and wing'd with fear, The herd decamp with more than swinish speed, And snorting dash thro' sedge, and rush, and reed: Through tangling thickets headlong on they go, Then stop, and listen for their fancied foe; The hindmost still the growing panic spreads, Repeated fright the first alarm succeeds, Till Folly's wages, wounds and thorns, they reap: Yet glorying in their fortunate escape, Their groundless terrors by degrees soon cease, And Night's dark reign restores their wonted peace. For now the gale subsides, and from each bough The roosting pheasant's short but frequent crow Invites to rest; and huddling side by side, The herd in closest ambush seek to hide; Seek some warm slope with shagged moss o'erspread, Dry'd leaves their copious covering and their bed. In vain may _Giles_, thro' gath'ring glooms that fall,