Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/467

Rh Oh! no, mid all o’s try to spend Our passèn time to zome good end, An’ zoo vrom day to day teäke heed, By mind, an’ han’, by word or deed; To lessen evil, and increase The growth o’ righteousness an’ peäce, A-speakèn words o’ lovèn-kindness, Openèn the eyes o’ blindness; Helpèn helpless striver’s weakness, Cheerèn hopeless grievers’ meekness, Meäkèn friends at every meetèn, Veel the happier vor their greetèn; Zoo that vew could tell us true, “I be never the better vor zeèn o’ you.” No, let us even try to win Zome little good vrom sons o’ sin, An’ let their evils warn us back Vrom teäkèn on their hopeless track, Where we mid zee so dear’s the zun That harm a-done is harm a-won, An’ we mid cry an’ tell em true, “I be even the better vor zeèn o’ you.”

Meäster Collins! aye, how mild he spoke Woone day o’ Mercy to zome cruel vo’k. “No, no. Have Mercy on a helpless head, An’ don’t be cruel to a zoul,’ he zaid. “When Babylon’s king woonce cast ’ithin &emsp;The viery furnace, in his spite, The vetter’d souls whose only sin &emsp;Wer praÿer to the God o’ might, He vound a fourth, ’ithout a neäme, A-walkèn wi’ em in the fleäme.