A Man Of Straw

I sit a scarecrow in the field

To warn the birds away

Because they picked my choicest fruits

     Most hungrily each day.

I felt quite satisfied; with might

     So hideous a sight

As that outlandish dummy there

     Will fill the birds with fright.

Again I wandered to the field,

     Alas! my keen dismay;

A bird perched on my scarecrow’s (arm)

     And trilled a saucy lay.

June 30, 1914

(on back side of last page of ‘Old Hen Jones’)