Page:Elegiac Sonnets 2.pdf/74

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Yet gentle was he, as the breath of the May, And when sick and declining was laid The Woodman his father, young William away Would go to the forest to labour all day, And perform his hard task in his stead.

And when his poor father the forester died, And his mother was sad, and alone, He toil'd from the dawn, and at evening he hied In storm or in snow, or whate'er might betide, To supply all her wants from the town.