Page:Jim of the Hills.djvu/76

  Now, the widow's name is Jenny, an' it strikes me sort of queer That my thoughts should be upon her when that robin's song I hear. She ain't so homely neither; but she never could compare With a certain bonzer vision with the sunlight in her hair.

When I wander down that evenin', she come smilin' to the gate, An' her look is calculatin', as she scolds because I'm late. She takes my hat an' sits me down an' heaves a little sigh. But I get a queer sensation from that glimmer in her eye.

She starts to talk about the mill, an' then about the strike, An' then she digs Ben Murray up an' treats him nasty-like; She treats him crool an' cattish, as them soft, sweet women can. But I ups an' tells her plainly that I think Ben is a man.

First round to me. But she comes back, an' says Ben is a cad Who's made a laughin'-stock of her, an' treated her reel bad. I twig she's out for sympathy; so counters that, an' says That Ben's a broken-hearted man about the mill these days.

The second round to me on points; an' I was havin' hopes. (I might have known that widows were familiar with the ropes.) "But he'd never make a husband "says the widow, with a sigh, An' again I gets a warnin' from that glimmer in her eye.