Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/399

Rh “Then you don’t seem a-born an’ a-bred,” &emsp;I spoke up, “at a place here about;” An’ she answer’d wi’ cheäks up so red &emsp;As a pi’ny but leäte a-come out, “No, I liv’d wi’ my uncle that died &emsp;Back in Eäpril, an’ now I’m a-come Here to Ham, to my mother, to bide,— &emsp;Aye, to her house to vind a new hwome,”

I’m asheämed that I wanted to know &emsp;Any mwore of her childhood or life, But then, why should so feäir a child grow &emsp;Where noo father did bide wi’ his wife; Then wi’ blushes of zunrisèn morn, &emsp;She replied “that it midden be known, “Oh! they zent me awaÿ to be born,— &emsp;Aye, they hid me when zome would be shown.”

Oh! it meäde me a’most teary-ey’d, &emsp;An’ I vound I a’most could ha’ groan’d— What! so winnèn, an’ still cast a-zide— &emsp;What! so lovely, an’ not to be own’d; Oh! a God-gift a-treated wi’ scorn, &emsp;Oh! a child that a squier should own; An’ to zend her awaÿ to be born!— &emsp;Aye, to hide her where others be shown!

up the down’s cool brow &emsp;I work’d in noontide’s gleäre, On where the slow-wheel’d plow &emsp;’D a-wore the grass half bare.