* * * * * * _Sunday Morning._--A very fine, clear frost. I stitched up _The Pedlar_; wrote out _Ruth_; read it with the alterations, then wrote Mary H. Read a little German, ... and in came William, I did not expect him till to-morrow. How glad I was. After we had talked about an hour, I gave him his dinner. We sate talking and happy. He brought two new stanzas of _Ruth_.... _Monday Morning._--A soft rain and mist. We walked to Rydale for letters. The Vale looked very beautiful in excessive simplicity, yet, at the same time, in uncommon obscurity. The Church stood alone--mountains behind. The meadows looked calm and rich, bordering on the still lake. Nothing else to be seen but lake and island.... On Friday evening the moon hung over the northern side of the highest point of Silver How, like a gold ring snapped in two, and shaven off at the ends. Within this ring lay the circle of the round moon, as distinctly to be seen as ever the enlightened moon is. William had observed the same appearance at Keswick, perhaps at the very same moment, hanging over the Newland Fells. Sent off a letter to Mary H., also to Coleridge, and Sara, and rewrote in the evening the alterations of _Ruth_, which we sent off at the same time. _Tuesday Morning._--William was reading in Ben Jonson. He read me a beautiful poem on Love.... We sate by the fire in the evening, and read _The Pedlar_ over. William worked a little, and altered it in a few places.... _Wednesday._-- ... Wm. read in Ben Jonson in the morning. I read a little German. We then walked to Rydale. No letters. They are slashing away in Benson's wood. William has since tea been talking about publishing the Yorkshire Wolds Poem with _The Pedlar_. _Thursday._--A fine morning. William worked at the poem of _The Singing Bird_.[54] Just as we were sitting down to dinner we heard Mr. Clarkson's voice. I ran down, William followed. He was so finely mounted that William was more intent upon the horse than the rider, an offence easily forgiven, for Mr. Clarkson was as proud of it himself as he well could be.... [Footnote 54: First published in 1807, under the title of _The Sailor's Mother_.--ED.] _Friday._--A very fine morning. We went to see Mr. Clarkson off. The sun shone while it rained, and the stones of the walls and the pebbles on the road glittered like silver.... William finished his poem of _The Singing Bird_. In the meantime I read the remainder of Lessing. In the evening after tea William wrote _Alice Fell_. He went to bed tired, with a wakeful mind and a weary body....