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According to the law, each house in Israel, i. e., no doubt, each which possessed land and flocks, had to bring two leavened firstling loaves of new wheaten meal and two yearling lambs as a thank offering.

Many a firstling of verse found its way to her, inscribed with reverent or loving words by the author.

And I chanted a canzone of Springtime and Birth, Which called o'er the sea to the firstling swallow, Who flew beside us o'er height and hollow, Till others came from their home of the Sun, And the farm-folk cried, "Dear Summer's begun."

The firstling swallow flying,     Later, owlets will be crying.

Her protest against the application of too lofty a moral standard in judging of our fellow-creatures, her championship of the "mongrel, ungainly dogs who are nobody's pets," is another of the prominent qualities of her genius fully expressed in this firstling work, being, indeed, at the root of her humorous conception of life.