Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/385

325 Now Harry he had long suspected

This trespass of old Goody Blake;

And vowed that she should be detected,

And he on her would vengeance take.

And oft from his warm fire he'd go,

And to the fields his road would take;

And there, at night, in frost and snow,

He watched to seize old Goody Blake.

And once, behind a rick of barley,

Thus looking out did Harry stand:

The moon was full and shining clearly,

And crisp with frost the stubble land.

—He hears a noise—he's all awake—

Again?—on tip-toe down the hill

He softly creeps—'Tis Goody Blake,

She's at the hedge of Harry Gill.

Right glad was he when he beheld her:

Stick after stick did Goody pull:

He stood behind a bush of elder,

Till she had filled her apron full.

When with her load she turned about,

The by-road back again to take,

He started forward with a shout,

And sprang upon poor Goody Blake.