Simple Rhymes - By Ruby N Ramsell

The Refuge

The Refuge

The huntsman gathered on the lawn

To drink a stirrup-cup

The gardener's lad peeped thro' the hedge

As he swept the dried leaves up.

The head man passing by called out,

"What are you doing there?"

"I've never seen a hunt," lad said,

"Please may I watch sir?"

"Get back to work," the head man said,

"This is no place for you,

The orchid-house needs tidying up,

There's lots of work to do."

In the hot-house with it's cloying scent

Lad heard the horses neighing,

And from the fields beyond high walls

The sound of foxhounds baying.

"Perhaps I'll see the hunt" he thought,

"If to that wall I creep,

And open the garden door

Just to take a peep."

He opened up the heavy door

And gazed across the grass

Then like the wind the fox ran past

Into the house of glass.

Lad locked the door and scampered back

To find amidst the blooms,

A panting fox surrounded by

The smell of sweet perfumes.

Then from beyond the wall be heard

The huntsman milling round,

"We've lost the scent," he heard them call,

"He must have gone to ground."

Then the hounds went to their kennels

And the horses to their grooms,

While the gardener's lad and fox lay low

Among the fragrant blooms.

And later on when all was quiet

Lad crept out furtively

And opened up the garden door

To let the fox run free.

That evening when the hunting crowd

Dined with their genial host,

They wondered but never guessed,

Their fox had lain so close.

Meanwhile the fox crept from his lair

And o'er the fields he sped,

And a very happy gardener's lad

Went whistling to his bed.