English poetry; Puck (Legendary character) -- Fiction; Short stories, English
'Ye desolate whirlwinds that rave,
I charge you be good to my dear!
She is all--she is all that I have,
And the time of our parting is near!'
'Beautiful!' said Una. 'And did they like it?'
'Like it? They were overwhelmed--_accablés_, as René says. My dear, if I
hadn't seen it, I shouldn't have believed that I could have drawn
tears, genuine tears, to the eyes of four grown men. But I did! René
simply couldn't endure it! He's all French sensibility. He hid his face
and said, "_Assez Mademoiselle! C'est plus fort que moi! Assez!_" And
Sir Arthur blew his nose and said, "Good Ged! This is worse than
Assaye!" While Dad sat with the tears simply running down his cheeks.'
'And what did Dr. Break do?'
'He got up and pretended to look out of the window, but I saw his little
fat shoulders jerk as if he had the hiccoughs. That _was_ a triumph. I
never suspected him of sensibility.'
'Oh, I wish I'd seen! I wish I'd been you,' said Una, clasping her
hands. Puck rustled and rose from the fern, just as a big blundering
cockchafer flew smack against Una's cheek.
When she had finished rubbing the place, Mrs. Vincey called to her that
_Pansy_ had been fractious, or she would have come long before to help
her strain and pour off.
'It didn't matter,' said Una; 'I just waited. Is that old _Pansy_
barging about the lower pasture now?'
'No,' said Mrs. Vincey, listening. 'It sounds more like a horse being
galloped middlin' quick through the woods; but there's no road there. I
reckon it's one of Gleason's colts loose. Shall I see you up to the
house, Miss Una?'
'Gracious no! thank you. What's going to hurt me?' said Una, and she put
her stool away behind the oak, and strolled home through the gaps that
old Hobden kept open for her.
BROOKLAND ROAD
I was very well pleased with what I knowed,
I reckoned myself no fool--
Till I met with a maid on the Brookland Road,
That turned me back to school.
_Low down--low down!
Where the liddle green lanterns shine--
Oh! maids, I've done with 'ee all but one,
And she can never be mine!_
'Twas right in the middest of a hot June night,
With thunder duntin' round,
And I see'd her face by the fairy light
That beats from off the ground.
She only smiled and she never spoke,
She smiled and went away;
But when she'd gone my heart was broke,
And my wits was clean astray.
Oh! Stop your ringing and let me be--
Let be, Oh Brookland bells!
You'll ring Old Goodman[4] out of the sea,
Before I wed one else!
Old Goodman's farm is rank sea sand,
And was this thousand year;
But it shall turn to rich plough land
Before I change my dear!
Oh! Fairfield Church is water-bound
From Autumn to the Spring;
But it shall turn to high hill ground
Before my bells do ring!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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