At freaks repeated of our younger days, Which I brought up, while passing spots of ground Where we, when children, "hurly-burlied" round, Or "blindman-buffed" some morts of hours away-- Two games, poor thing, Jane dearly loved to play. She smiled at these, but shook her head and sighed When eer she thought my look was turned aside; Nor turned she round, as was her former way, To praise the thorn, white over then with May; Nor stooped once, though thousands round her grew, To pull a cowslip as she used to do: For Jane in flowers delighted from a child-- I like the garden, but she loved the wild-- And oft on Sundays young men's gifts declined, Posies from gardens of the sweetest kind, And eager scrambled the dog-rose to get, And woodbine-flowers at every bush she met. The cowslip blossom, with its ruddy streak, Would tempt her furlongs from the path to seek; And gay long purple, with its tufty spike, She'd wade oer shoes to reach it in the dyke; And oft, while scratching through the briary woods For tempting cuckoo-flowers and violet buds, Poor Jane, I've known her crying sneak to town, Fearing her mother, when she'd torn her gown. Ah, these were days her conscience viewed with pain, Which all are loth to lose, as well as Jane. And, what I took more odd than all the rest, Was, that same night she neer a wish exprest To see the gipsies, so beloved before, That lay a stone's throw from us on the moor: I hinted it; she just replied again-- She once believed them, but had doubts since then. And when we sought our cows, I called, "Come mull!" But she stood silent, for her heart was full. She loved dumb things: and ere she had begun To milk, caressed them more than eer she'd done; But though her tears stood watering in her eye, I little took it as her last good-bye; For she was tender, and I've often known Her mourn when beetles have been trampled on: So I neer dreamed from this, what soon befell, Till the next morning rang her passing-bell. My story's long, but time's in plenty yet, Since the black clouds betoken nought but wet; And I'll een snatch a minute's breath or two, And take another pinch, to help me through.