He’s to be hanged. Only a boy. My friend. I thought him just a boy; I didn’t know. And Ern was killed, and now the boy’s to end, And all because he thought he loved me so.’ ’My dear,’ the lady said; and Anna, ’Oh. It’s very hard to bear the ills men make, He thought he loved, and it was all mistake.’ ’My dear,’ the lady said; ’you poor, poor woman, Have you no friends to go to?’ ’I’m alone. I’ve parents living, but they’re both inhuman, And none can cure what pierces to the bone. I’ll have to leave and go where I’m not known. Begin my life again.’ Her friend said ’Yes. Certainly that. But leave me your address: For I might hear of something; I’ll enquire, Perhaps the boy might be reprieved or pardoned. Couldn’t we ask the rector or the squire To write and ask the Judge? He can’t be hardened. What do you do? Is it housework? Have you gardened? Your hands are very white and soft to touch.’ ’Lately I’ve not had heart for doing much.’ So the talk passes as the train descends Into the vale and halts and starts to climb To where the apple-bearing country ends And pleasant-pastured hills rise sweet with thyme, Where clinking sheepbells make a broken chime And sunwarm gorses rich the air with scent And kestrels poise for mice, there Anna went. There, in the April, in the garden-close, One heard her in the morning singing sweet, Calling the birds from the unbudded rose, Offering her lips with grains for them to eat. The redbreasts come with little wiry feet, Sparrows and tits and all wild feathery things, Brushing her lifted face with quivering wings. Jimmy was taken down into a cell, He did not need a hand, he made no fuss. The men were kind ’for what the kid done ... well The same might come to any one of us.’ They brought him bits of cake at tea time: thus The love that fashioned all in human ken, Works in the marvellous hearts of simple men. And in the nights (they watched him night and day) They told him bits of stories through the grating, Of how the game went at the football play, And how the rooks outside had started mating. And all the time they knew the rope was waiting, And every evening friend would say to friend, ’I hope we’ve not to drag him at the end.’ And poor old mother came to see her son, ’The Lord has gave,’ she said, ’The Lord has took; I loved you very dear, my darling one, And now there’s none but God where we can look. We’ve got God’s promise written in His Book, He will not fail; but oh, it do seem hard.’ She hired a room outside the prison yard. ’Where did you get the money for the room? And how are you living, mother; how’ll you live?’ ’It’s what I’d saved to put me in the tomb, I’ll want no tomb but what the parish give.’ ’Mother, I lied to you that time, O forgive, I brought home half my wages, half I spent, And you went short that week to pay the rent.