Brother Bruin.

A dancing Bear grotesque and funny     Earned for his master heaps of money,     Gruff yet good-natured, fond of honey,     And cheerful if the day was sunny.     Past hedge and ditch, past pond and wood     He tramped, and on some common stood;     There, cottage children circling gaily,     He in their midmost footed daily.     Pandean pipes and drum and muzzle     Were quite enough his brain to puzzle:     But like a philosophic bear     He let alone extraneous care     And danced contented anywhere.     Still, year on year, and wear and tear,     Age even the gruffest, bluffest bear.     A day came when he scarce could prance,     And when his master looked askance     On dancing Bear who would not dance.     To looks succeeded blows; hard blows     Battered his ears and poor old nose.     From bluff and gruff he waxed curmudgeon;     He danced indeed, but danced in dudgeon,     Capered in fury fast and faster.     Ah, could he once but hug his master     And perish in one joint disaster!     But deafness, blindness, weakness growing,     Not fury's self could keep him going.     One dark day when the snow was snowing     His cup was brimmed to overflowing:     He tottered, toppled on one side,     Growled once, and shook his head, and died.     The master kicked and struck in vain,     The weary drudge had distanced pain     And never now would wince again.     The master growled; he might have howled     Or coaxed, - that slave's last growl was growled.     So gnawed by rancor and chagrin     One thing remained: he sold the skin.     What next the man did is not worth     Your notice or my setting forth,     But hearken what befell at last.     His idle working days gone past,     And not one friend and not one penny     Stored up (if ever he had any     Friends; but his coppers had been many),     All doors stood shut against him but     The workhouse door, which cannot shut.     There he droned on, - a grim old sinner,     Toothless, and grumbling for his dinner,     Unpitied quite, uncared for much     (The rate-payers not favoring such),     Hungry and gaunt, with time to spare;     Perhaps the hungry, gaunt old Bear     Danced back, a haunting memory.     Indeed, I hope so, for you see     If once the hard old heart relented,     The hard old man may have repented.