s a hard man.

_Mrs. J. (aside)._ Mark me, neighbours all,
Hard though he be--ay, and the mistress hard--
If he do sing 'twill be a sorrowful
Sad tale of sweethearts, that shall make you wish
Your own time would come over again, although
Were partings in 't and tears. Hist! now he sings.

_Young farmer sings again._

'Come hither, come hither.' The broom was in blossom all over yon rise;
There went a wide murmur of brown bees about it with songs from the wood.
'We shall never be younger! O love, let us forth, for the world 'neath our
eyes,
Ay, the world is made young e'en as we, and right fair is her youth and
right good.'

Then there fell the great yearning upon me, that never yet went into words;
While lovesome and moansome thereon spake and falter'd the dove to the
dove.
And I came at her calling, 'Inherit, inherit, and sing with the birds;'
I went up to the wood with the child of my heart and the wife of my love.

O pure! O pathetic! Wild hyacinths drank it, the dream light, apace
Not a leaf moved at all 'neath the blue, they hung waiting for messages
kind;
Tall cherry-trees dropped their white blossom that drifted no whit from
its place,
For the south very far out to sea had the lulling low voice of the
wind.

And the child's dancing foot gave us part in the ravishment almost a pain,
An infinite tremor of life, a fond murmur that cried out on time,
Ah short! must all end in the doing and spend itself sweetly in vain,
And the promise be only fulfilment to lean from the height of its prime?

'We shall never be younger;' nay, mock me not, fancy, none call from yon
tree;
They have thrown me the world they went over, went up, and, alas! For
my part
I am left to grow old, and to grieve, and to change; but they change not
with me;
They will never be older, the child of my love, and the wife of my
heart.

_Mrs. J. I_ told you so!

_Mrs. T. (aside)._ That did you, neighbour. Ay,
Partings, said you, and tears: I liked the song.

_Mrs. G_. Who be these coming to the front to sing?

_Mrs. J. (aside)._ Why, neighbour, these be sweethearts, so 'tis said,
And there was much ado to make her sing;
She would, and would not; and he wanted her,
And, mayhap, wanted to be seen with her.
'Tis Tomlin's pretty maid, his only one.

_Mrs. G. (aside)._ I did not know the maid, so fair she looks.

_Mrs. J. (aside)._ He's