PO: EB TR YY; 925 
10. 
Would it were so!.. the fire burns bright, 
And on the warming trencher gleams ; 
In expectation’s raptur’d sight 
How precious his arrival seems !— 
"hie Wale 
Tl look abroad!... ’tis piercing cold!... 
How the bleak wind assails his breast! 
Yet some faint light mine eyes behold : 
The storm is verging o’er the west— 
12. 
¢ There shines a star.... O welcome sight! 
© Through the thin vapours bright’ning still, 
6 
¢ 
a nnn 
a fF AON 
Yet ’twas beneath the fairest night 
The murd’rer stain’d yon lonely hill— 
- 13. 
© Mercy, kind heav’n! such thoughts dispel ! 
© No voice, no footstep can I hear!’ 
(Where night and silence brooding dwell 
Spreads thy cold reign, heart-chilling fear.) 
14. 
¢ Distressing hour! uncertain fate! 
¢ O mercy, mercy, guide him home!.. . 
¢ Hark! ... then I heard the distant gate 
¢ Repeat it, echo ; quickly, come! ’ 
15. 
¢ One minute now will ease my fears. ... 
- © Or still more wretched must I be? 
¢ No: surely heav’n has spar’d our tears : 
‘ I see him, cloath’d insnow:... ’tés he... 
16. 
Where have you stay’d? put down your load. 
How have you borne the storm, the cold? 
What horrors did I not forebode.. . 
That beast is worth his weight in gold !’ 
AK: 
Thus spoke the joyful wife . . . then ran 
And hid in grateful steams her head : 
Dapple was hous’d, the hungry man 
With joy glane’d o’er the children’s bed— 
18. 
What all asleep! ... so best ;’ he cried; 
O what a night Pve travell’d through ; 
Unseen, unheard, I might have died ; 
But heav’n has brought me safe to you— 
19. 
Dear partner of my nights and days, 
That smile becomes thee! . . . Let us then 
Learn though mishap may ¢ross cur ways, 
It is not ours, to reckon when !—— 
c 
‘ 
C4 
c 
CADYOW 
