Rudyard Kipling

Enlarged from "Many Inventions"


   She dropped the bar, she shot the bolt, she fed the fire anew
   For she heard  a whimper under the  sill  and  a  great grey paw came through.
   The fresh flame comforted the hut and shone on the roof-beam,
   And the Only Son lay down again and dreamed that he dreamed a dream.
   The last ash fell from the withered log with the click of a falling spark,
   And the Only Son woke up again, and called across the dark:--
   "Now was I born of womankind and laid in a mother's breast?
   For I have dreamed of a shaggy hide whereon I went to rest.
   And was I born of womankind and laid on a father's arm?
   For I have dreamed of clashing teeth that guarded me from harm.

   And was I born an Only Son and did I play alone?
   For I have dreamed of comrades twain that bit me to the bone.
   And did I break the barley-cake and steep it in the tyre?
   For I have dreamed of a youngling kid new-riven from the byre:
   For I  have  dreamed  of a midnight sky  and  a  midnight call to blood                            
   And red-mouthed shadows racing by, that thrust me from my food.
   'Tis an hour yet and an hour yet to the rising of the moon,
   But I can see the black roof-tree as plain as it were noon.
   'Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the trooping blackbuck go;
   But I can hear the little fawn that bleats behind the doe.


   'Tis a league and a league to the Lena Falls where the crop and the upland meet,
   But I Can smell the  wet dawn-wind  that wakes  the sprouting wheat.
   Unbar the door. I may not bide, but I must out and see 
   If those are wolves that wait outside or my own kin to me!"
         .                 .                    .                .             . 
   She loosed the bar,  she slid the bolt, she opened the door anon,
   And a grey bitch-wolf came out of the dark and fawned on the Only Son!