Come! sweet April, whom all men praise, Bring your daffodils up to the Raise, Bid the delicate warbler trill, Come with the cuckoo over the hill Sprinkle the birch with sprays of green, Purple the copses all between; Bend the rainbow, and swell the brooks, Fill the air with the sound of rooks, Rubies lend, for the larch to wear, The lambs are bleating, and May is near. August comes, and the speckled thrush Sings no more in the lilac bush, Lambs in the meadow cease to bleat, The hills are dim with the noontide heat, From all her hedges the rose is fled, And only the harebell lifts her head; But green are the new-mown vales with grass As if the Spring were again to pass, And children bring from the far-off fell The rose-red heather--the bee loves well, Comes October with breath more cold, She breathes, and the bracken turns to gold, The cherry blushes as red as blood, The rowan flames in the painted wood, The larch-tree tresses are amber bright, The birch is yellowing up on the height, {82} And over the valley and over the hill A deep hush broods and the sheep are still, But rainbow gossamers fill the air, Tho' the old earth rests, the world is fair. Now are the mountains winter-white, Helvellyn shines in the clear moonlight; The carollers sing, and the Christmas bells Send sweet messages up the fells; The old folk meet for their Christmas cheer, The young folk skate on the frozen mere; But Spring is coming, the shy buds peep, The snow-drop moves in her long, long sleep, The lemon-light shines on the leafless larch, And the wood grows purple to welcome March. Fair, how fair, are the changing days That keep us happy beneath the Raise, We who, in honour of Oswald the King, Our 'bearings' still to the Old Church bring, We who here in the silent time Act our part and carol our rhyme. Seasons change, and our hair grows grey, But merrily goes the Grasmere play, And two things stay with us all the year-- Love of our valley, and heart of cheer. It had been prettily set to music by a Grasmere lady, and the two bass voices chimed in with the two last lines in each verse, and Mattha the tailor and Jonty the farm servant gave great effect to the song by the sudden addition of their manly notes. Before the curtain falls on this scene, we learn that the tourist (to whom {83} we were introduced in the first scene), Mr. Augustus Mallister, who has heard that she is an heiress, is determined, if possible, to win the heart of Betty Braithwaite. He knows that Aaron's absence has made her heart grow fonder. He determines to write a letter, which shall be posted in London, purporting to come from Aaron, in which the absent lover declares that he has become engaged to an American girl; and so the curtain falls.