the "cottage bench," "as if asleep," and
"his eyes, as if in drowsiness, half shut," was in a mood between
sleeping and waking; and this creed is corroborated by the following
assertion--

"He had not heard the sound
Of my approaching steps, and in the shade
Unnoticed did I stand some minutes' space.
At length I hail'd him, seeing that his hat
Was moist with water-drops, as if the brim
Had newly scoop'd a running stream."

He rose; and so do We, for probably by this time you may have discovered
that we have been describing Ourselves in our siesta or mid-day
snooze--as we have been beholding in our mind's eye our venerated and
mysterious Double.

We cannot help flattering ourselves--if indeed it be flattery--that
though no relative of his, we have a look of the Pedlar--as he is
elaborately painted by the hand of a great master in the aforesaid Poem.

"Him had I mark'd the day before--alone,
And station'd in the public way, with, face
Turn'd to the sun then setting, while that staff
Afforded to the figure of the man,
Detain'd for contemplation or repose,
Graceful support," &c.

As if it were yesterday, we remember our first interview with the Bard.
It was at the Lady's Oak, between Ambleside and Rydal. We were then in
the very flower of our age--just sixty; so we need not say the century
had then seen but little of this world. The Bard was a mere boy of some
six lustres, and had a lyrical-ballad look that established his identity
at first sight, all unlike the lackadaisical. His right hand was within
his vest on the region of the heart, and he ceased his crooning as we
stood face to face. What a noble countenance! at once austere and
gracious--haughty and benign--of a man conscious of his greatness while
yet companioning with the humble--an unrecognised power dwelling in the
woods. Our figure at that moment so impressed itself on his imagination,
that it in time supplanted the image of the real Pedlar, and grew into
the _Emeritus of the Three Days_. We were standing in that very
attitude--having deposited on the coping of the wall our Kit, since
adopted by the British Army, with us at once a library and a larder.

And again--and even more characteristically,--

"Plain was his garb:
Such as might suit a rustic sire, prepared
For Sabbath duties; yet he was a man
Whom no one could have pass'd without remark,
Active and nervous