(T HE Sheep U NDER T HE S NOW ).

O H , dark is the daylight and darker the sky,
And small are the snowflakes, but closely they lie:
Then rouse ye, my shepherds, to the hills we must go,
For I'm fearin' the sheep will be lost in the snow!

Then up rose the shepherd and sadly did say:
" Oh, masthar, oh, masthar, there's sorrow this day —
For the childher this morn to the schoolhouse did go,
And I'm fearin' they're losted deep under the snow! "

Oh, haste ye then, shepherds, get lanterns and men,
For the snowflakes are piling on mountain and glen.
Fetch Trusty and Mona, the best dogs I know,
For there's more than the sheep may be lost in the snow.

Oh, Trusty, oh, Mona, what is it you've found,
And what is there under that cold, silent mound?
For the poor dogs, lamenting, lay down in their woe,
But their cries could not waken the lambs in the snow.

And there lay the childher so peaceful and sweet,
A sod for their pillow, a stone to their feet;
And rosy their faces in the lanterns' red glow —
But the light never wakened the lambs in the snow!

There's sheep on Slieu Whallian and sheep on Slieu Dhoo,
And young lambs are playing in sheltered Folieu;
But there's mourning and crying in farms high and low
For the lambs that were lying deep under the snow.