elieve me.

"Then, gentle dame,
Admit my flame,
And grant me my petition;
If you deny,
Alas! I die
In pitiful condition.

"Before the news
Of your dear spouse
Had reached us at New Haven,
My dear wife dy'd,
Who was my bride
In anno eighty-seven.

"Thus[78] being free,
Let's both agree
To join our hands, for I do
Boldly aver
A widower
Is fittest for a widow.

"You may be sure
'T is not your dower
I make this flowing verse on;
In these smooth lays
I only praise
The glories[79] of your person.

"For the whole that
Was left by[80] _Mat._
Fortune to me has granted
In equal store,
I've[81] one thing more
Which Matthew long had wanted.

"No teeth, 't is true,
You have to shew,
The young think teeth inviting;
But silly youths!
I love those mouths[82]
Where there's no fear of biting.

"A leaky eye,
That's never dry,
These woful times is fitting.
A wrinkled face
Adds solemn grace
To folks devout at meeting.

"[A furrowed brow,
Where corn might grow,
Such fertile soil is seen in 't,
A long hook nose,
Though scorned by foes,
For spectacles convenient.][83]

"Thus to go on
I would[84] put down
Your charms from head to foot,
Set all your glory
In verse before ye,
But I've no mind to do 't.[85]

"Then haste away,
And make no stay;
For soon as you come hither,
We'll eat and sleep,
Make beds and sweep.
And talk and smoke together.

"But if, my dear,
I must move there,
Tow'rds Cambridge straight I'll set me.[86]
To touse the hay
On which you lay,
If age and you will let me."[87]

The authorship of Father Abbey's Will and the Letter of Courtship
is ascribed to the Rev. John Seccombe, who graduated at Harvard
College in the year 1728. The former production was sent to
England through the hands of Governor Belcher, and in May, 1732,
appeared both in the Gentleman's Magazine and the London Magazine.
The latter was also despatched to England, and was printed in the
Gentleman's Magazine for June, and in the London Magazine for
August, 1732. Both were republished in the Massachusetts Magazine,
November, 1794. A most entertaining account of the author of these
poems, and of those to whom they relate, may be found in the
"Historical and Biographical Notes" of the pamphlet to which
allusion has been already made, and in the "Cambridge [Mass.]
Chronicle" of April 28, 1855.