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[Illustration: Cover]


[Illustration]


NIGHT FALL IN THE TI-TREE

Woodcuts by

GERALDINE REDE AND VIOLET TEAGUE.

Salut!







[Illustration]

Imprinted now for the first time by hand at the Sign of the Rabbit,
89 Collins Street, the 13th of July, 1905.

All Rights Reserved.




  Night falls in the Ti-Tree,
    Dusk fades from the hill--
  The Frogs on their banjoes
    Are strumming their fill
                With a will.


[Illustration]




  Banjoes in the near pond
    Bones in the other--
  In ecstasy Crickets
    Outshrill one another.
          Shrill.... Shrill....


[Illustration]


[Illustration]




  The Birds are all hushed now
    The moon's in the sky--
  Around and around us
    The little Bats fly,
                  Waveringly.


[Illustration]


[Illustration]




  The Rabbits have nibbled
    Sweet grass on the furrow,
  Have frisking and flirting
    Loped to their burrow,
          Safe on their burrow.


[Illustration]


[Illustration]




  Safe on their burrow.


[Illustration]




  Are you glad, little Rabbits
    To have played yet a day?
  Does no foresight show you
    What may happen some day?
                  Wellaway!

  For commonest, direst,
    Of wild folk's mishaps
  Is to find yourselves caught in
    Man's merciless traps--
            Devil's own snaps.




  They set them and lay them
    In your very door,
  Then craftily strew them
    With sand and leaves o'er,
              Craftily o'er.


[Illustration]




  You step out unwitting,
    Bright moon inviting--
  Ah! What a spring when
    You taste its fierce biting;
          Steel chain affrighting,

  You scream in your anguish,
    A mute thing by kind!
  You make but the search easy
    When Death comes to find,
            O easily find!


[Illustration]




  Yet God was on your side,
    Else why did He make
  Such long ears to hearken?
    Such bright eyes to wake?


[Illustration]




  And so, little Rabbits,
    In danger some day,
  Remember Who's for you,
    Flirt tails and away!


[Illustration]


[Illustration: Flirt tails and away!]


[Illustration: Back]