Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/41

33 They were such darlings of each other. For

Though from their cradles they had liv'd with Walter,

The only kinsman near them in the house,

Yet he being old, they had much love to spare,

And it all went into each other's hearts.

Leonard, the elder by just eighteen months,

Was two years taller: 'twas a joy to see,

To hear, to meet them! from their house the School

Was distant three short miles, and in the time

Of storm and thaw, when every water-course

And unbridg'd stream, such as you may have notic'd

Crossing our roads at every hundred steps,

Was swoln into a noisy rivulet,

Would Leonard then, when elder boys perhaps

Remain'd at home, go staggering through the fords

Bearing his Brother on his back.—I've seen him,

On windy days, in one of those stray brooks,

Aye, more than once I've seen him mid-leg deep,

Their two books lying both on a dry stone

Upon the hither side:—and once I said,