a little boy with crumbs of bread

many a hungry sparrow fed.

it was a child of little sense

who this kind bounty did dispense;

for suddenly ’twas from them torn,

and all the birds were left forlorn

in a hard time of frost and snow,

not knowing where for food to go.

he would no longer give them bread,

because he had observed, he said,

a great black bird, a rook by name,

that sometimes to the window came

and took away a small bird’s share.

so foolish henry did not care

what became of the great rook

that from the little sparrows took,

now and then, as ’twere by stealth,

a part of their abundant wealth;

nor ever more would feed his sparrows.

thus ignorance a kind heart narrows.

i wish i had been there, i would

have told the child, rooks live by food

in the same way the sparrows do.

i also would have told him too

birds act by instinct, and ne’er can

attain the rectitude of man.

nay, that even when distress

does on poor human nature press,

we need not be too strict in seeing

the failings of a fellow-being.