| |
| “THY husband—poor, poor Heart!—is dead— | |
| Dead, out by Moreford Rise; | |
| A bull escaped the barton-shed, | |
| Gored him, and there he lies!” | |
| |
| —“Ha, ha—go away! ’Tis a tale, methink, | 5 |
| Thou joker Kit!” laughed she. | |
| “I’ve known thee many a year, Kit Twink, | |
| And ever hast thou fooled me!” | |
| |
| —“But, Mistress Damon—I can swear | |
| Thy goodman John is dead! | 10 |
| And soon th’lt hear their feet who bear | |
| His body to his bed.” | |
| |
| So unwontedly sad was the merry man’s face— | |
| That face which had long deceived— | |
| That she gazed and gazed; and then could trace | 15 |
| The truth there; and she believed. | |
| |
| She laid a hand on the dresser-ledge, | |
| And scanned far Egdon-side; | |
| And stood; and you heard the wind-swept sedge | |
| And the rippling Froom; till she cried: | 20 |
| |
| “O my chamber’s untidied, unmade my bed, | |
| Though the day has begun to wear! | |
| ‘What a slovenly hussif!’ it will be said, | |
| When they all go up my stair!” | |
| |
| She disappeared; and the joker stood | 25 |
| Depressed by his neighbor’s doom, | |
| And amazed that a wife struck to widowhood | |
| Thought first of her unkempt room. | |
| |
| But a fortnight thence she could take no food, | |
| And she pined in a slow decay; | 30 |
| While Kit soon lost his mournful mood | |
And laughed in his ancient way.
1894. | |
| |
