When I awoke the ground was white—
It had been snowing all the night—
And looking through the frosted pane,
On which a crescent drift was lain,
I saw two little sparrows brown
Half hid in twigs of tattered down.
The winter had been cold and hard,
And ice had covered street and yard
For many days; and these poor things,
With ruffled breasts and nestling wings
Perched in the icy twigs, had found
No food upon the frozen ground.
And now no doubt they thought with fear
That 'twould be winter all the year,
For while they slept the snow had swirled
Through all the silent hours of night,
And left them but a marble world
O'er which to chirp in cheerless flight.
“Ah, golden little vanity,”
I said to the canary swinging
In gilded cage and blithely singing,
“You'd lose your frolicsome insanity
And be a very sober bird
Had you no food, no fire to glow,
Like those poor sparrows in the snow—
Your song would hardly then be heard.”
And saying this, I took the seed
Of rape and hemp from Folly's cage,
At which its little soul of greed
Protested with terrific rage,
And with a liberal hand I cast
The food upon the wintry blast.
The twigs let fall a flaky shower,
And never was a summer bower
More vocal with the twittered glee
Of birds than was that icy tree.
They saw the seeds. But what did they?
One, then the other, flew away.
Vexed at the silly things—to spurn
The food that they must sorely need—
Sighing, I was about to turn,
Thinking that I would no more heed
Sweet pity's voice—that Nature knew
Better than I did what to do
For her poor children—when my ear
Caught sound of chirp and flutter near.
Looking again, I saw below
A score of sparrows on the snow.

Here was a lesson sweetly taught
By Nature, (loveliest of teachers.)
The two lone birds that I had thought
Such silly, thankless little creatures
Had flown to tell their mates where they
Might find a feast that snowy day.
And down they came from trees and eaves
Like wind-blown brown autumnal leaves,
And soon the snow, all tracks and trails,
Was full of pert sky-tilted tails.