This is the man that shoots the hares;
This is the coat he always wears:
With game-bag, powder-horn and gun,
He's going out to have some fun.
He finds it hard, without a pair
Of spectacles, to shoot the hare:
The hare sits snug in leaves and grass,
And laughs to see the green man pass.
[Illustration]
Now, as the sun grew very hot,
And he a heavy gun had got,
He lay down underneath a tree
And went to sleep, as you may see.
And, while he slept like any top,
The little hare came, hop, hop, hop,--
Took gun and spectacles, and then
On her hind legs went off again.
[Illustration]
The green man wakes, and sees her place
The spectacles upon her face;
And now she's trying, all she can,
To shoot the sleepy green-coat man.
He cries and screams and runs away;
The hare runs after him all day,
And hears him call out every where,
"Help! Fire! Help! The Hare! The Hare!"
[Illustration]
At last he stumbled at the well
Head over ears, and in he fell.
The hare stopp'd short, took aim, and hark!
Bang went the gun,--she miss'd her mark!
[Illustration]
The poor man's wife was drinking up
Her coffee in her coffee-cup;
The gun shot cup and saucer through
"O dear!" cried she, "what shall I do?"
There liv'd close by the cottage there
The hare's own child, the little hare;
And while she stood upon her toes,
The coffee fell and burn'd her nose,
"O dear!" she cried, with spoon in hand,
"Such fun I do not understand."