Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/384

324 But when the ice our streams did fetter,

Oh! then how her old bones would shake!

You would have said, if you had met her,

'Twas a hard time for Goody Blake.

Her evenings then were dull and dead!

Sad case it was, as you may think,

For very cold to go to bed;

And then for cold not sleep a wink.

Oh joy for her! whene'er in winter

The winds at night had made a rout;

And scattered many a lusty splinter

And many a rotten bough about.

Yet never had she, well or sick,

As every man who knew her says,

A pile before hand, wood or stick,

Enough to warm her for three days.

Now, when the frost was past enduring,

And made her poor old bones to ache,

Could any thing be more alluring

Than an old hedge to Goody Blake?

And, now and then, it must be said,

When her old bones were cold and chill,

She left her fire, or left her bed,

To seek the hedge of Harry Gill.