Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/107

COUSIN LUCRECE Damask brocaded,

Cut very low;

Short sleeves and finger-mitts

Fit for a show;

Palsied neck shaking her

Rust-yellow curls,

Rattling its roundabout

String of mock pearls;

Over her noddle,

Draggled and stark,

Two ostrich feathers—

Brought from the ark.

Shoes of frayed satin,

All heel and toe,

On her poor crippled feet

Hobbled below.

My! how the Justice's

Sons and their wives

Laughed; while the little folk

Ran for their lives,

Asking if beldames

Out of the past,

Old fairy godmothers,

Always could last?

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