Classic Poem

" I heard a trout leap
Under the bulrushes. I hear 't again."
" No. That was a waterhen
Diving. But I am hungry. Let us go,
It is dark and the linnets are asleep
But we will waken at the dawn and steal
Upon Beann Gulbain with the hound and spear
And we will pull ripe blackberries and peel
Hazel nuts and hunt among the pines until
The sun is red. Let you now string the trout."
" No, I will take the quicken rod."
" I will.
Hasten! Hasten! for the stars are out
And we must go."
" Ainnle! as you stooped
To watch the roach hidden in the deep
Waters, I ran up to the crooked hill.
A rabbit bobbed out of a burrow and ran
Behind a tussock; a great hawk flew
Slowly above the alder tops and drooped
Into the night, then I saw torches creep
Along Beann Gulbain through the darkened trees."
" It was the moonrise, maybe,"
" Hist!
Do you not hear a stir?"
" It is the breeze
Going about the reedy lake."
" A cry?"
" I hear a curlew crying near the sky."
" Look! Ainnle, look! the fairy mist
Is round us and the grass is wet. A fear
Is on me."
" Be quiet now. Here is the path."
" Ainnle! What is that still thing in the night?"
" Where, Youngling? I can only see the white
Mushrooms i' the grass."
" Upon the rath."
" A misty willow."
" But it turned and faced
Us, and when the moon shone out I saw" . . . .
" It is some woman who has come to draw
A pitcher of water from the well. But here
Is the gap beneath the sallies. Let us haste!"