The Child stood wondering at the silent man, Doubtful to go or stay, when presently She felt a plucking, for the goat began To crop the trail of twining briony She held behind her; so that, laughing, she Turned her light steps, retreating, to the sea. But the goat followed her on eager feet, And therewithal an air so grave and mild, Coupled with such a deprecatory bleat Of injured confidence, that soon the Child Filled the lone shore with louder merriment, And e'en the Cyclops' heavy brow unbent. Thus grew acquaintanceship between the pair, The girl and goat;--for thenceforth, day by day, The Child would bring her four-foot friend such fare As might be gathered on the downward way:-- Foxglove, or broom, and "yellow cytisus," Dear to all goats since Greek Theocritus. But, for the Cyclops, that misogynist Having, by stress of circumstances, smiled, Felt it at least incumbent to resist Further encroachment, and as one beguiled By adverse fortune, with the half-door shut, Dwelt in the dim seclusion of his hut. And yet not less from thence he still must see That daily coming, and must hear the goat Bleating her welcome; then, towards the sea, The happy voices of the playmates float; Until, at last, enduring it no more, He took his wonted station by the door. Here was, of course, a pitiful surrender; For soon the Child, on whom the Evil Eye Seemed to exert an influence but slender, Would run to question him, till, by and by, His moody humor like a cloud dispersing, He found himself uneasily conversing. That was a sow's-ear, that an egg of skate, And this an agate rounded by the wave. Then came inquiries still more intimate About himself, the anvil, and the cave; And then, at last, the Child, without alarm Would even spell the letters on his arm. "G--A--L--_Galatea_." So there grew On his part, like some half-remembered tale, The new-found memory of an ice-bound crew, And vague garrulities of spouting whale,-- Of sea-cow basking upon berg and floe. And Polar light, and stunted Eskimo. Till, in his heart, which hitherto had been Locked as those frozen barriers of the North, There came once more the season of the green,-- The tender bud-time and the putting forth, So that the man, before the new sensation, Felt for the child a kind of adoration;-- Rising by night, to search for shell and flower, To lay in places where she found them first; Hoarding his cherished goat's milk for the hour When those young lips might feel the summer's thirst; Holding himself for all devotion paid By that clear laughter of the little maid.