Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/223

215 Here Michael ceas'd, and to the fields went forth

With a light heart. The House-wife for five days

Was restless morn and night, and all day long

Wrought on with her best fingers to prepare

Things needful for the journey of her Son.

But Isabel was glad when Sunday came

To stop her in her work; for, when she lay

By Michael's side, she for the two last nights

Heard him, how he was troubled in his sleep:

And when they rose at morning she could see

That all his hopes were gone. That day at noon

She said to Luke, while they two by themselves

Were sitting at the door, "Thou must not go,

We have no other Child but thee to lose,

None to remember—do not go away,

For if thou leave thy Father he will die."

The Lad made answer with a jocund voice,

And Isabel, when she had told her fears,

Recover'd heart. That evening her best fare