University of Virginia Library

Well, whatever it was, it was see-saw,
For a while at the misthress: would she hould her jaw
Altogether, or just to spake out
To Tommy at once, like a doubt in a doubt—
For to spake at all wasn' aisy to her—
And to spake to Tommy—that was more.
For ould sorrows comes over you sometimes
Like ould tunes, like ould rimes,
That's runnin' in your head, and makin' ye
A sort of happy, and sometimes they're takin' ye
Like the frost takes the whalers in the fall of the year,
And gunpowder cannot blast you clear.
And still, for all, she had to say something,
For of course this Tommy would think it a rum thing
For her to be carryin' on like yandhar:
And besides—she loved him—Alexandher!
I'll throuble you to look sirrious!
Loved him—that's the way it was—
Bless ye! and isn' it Natur tells us
To pour our souls into somebody else's?
And that's what she'd longed for, but hard to find;
So never couldn' make up her mind,
Part wondherin' if Tommy would shuit,
But stopped at the pint, and didn' do't.
But now—what was it she wouldn' dar'?
So she tould her saycret, so there you are!
Only just think now! Pazons and preachers,
Pastors and masters, class-leaders and teachers,
Shuperintendan's and conferences,
Archdeacons and bishops, and all their expenses
Paid. Think of that! the whole machine
That was workin' around her, or else should have been—
Priests and Levites, that was used to go
Every day to Jericho,
And back very likely—and never eyein'
The craythur that lay by the roadside dyin'—
And this little chap, that just kep' in his place,
Like a dog might keep, and look up in her face,
But looks like axin' her to tell—
Aye, that's it! aw well, well, well!