[Mark McDonnell]

Hi Richard,

Yes, I will think about the repetition of "hear" in the penultimate and final stanza. Good spot. They are close together and the repetition isn't serving much purpose. I might change "You'll hear that mournful sound" to "There comes a mournful sound". And I might come up with something better than "by that tree" in the Brin's call line.

I feel happy with the other places you mention, I think, as well as the length. It takes less than 4 minutes to read aloud slowly! And I definitely want to end with the sheep. My niece will be fine saying "girls and boys" to a happy bunch of cider quaffing folkies. She's a trooper.

I may keep tinkering with it for fun.

Thanks again for staying with this.

Mark