Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/133

125 Inch-thick the dust lay on the ground,

For it had long been droughty weather:

So with his staff the Cripple wrought

Among the dust, till he had brought

The halfpennies together.

It chanced that Andrew passed that way

Just at the time; and there he found

The Cripple in the mid-day heat

Standing alone, and at his feet

He saw the penny on the ground.

He stooped and took the penny up:

And when the Cripple nearer drew,

Quoth Andrew, "Under half-a-crown,

What a man finds is all his own;

And so, my friend, good day to you."

And hence I say, that Andrew's boys

Will all be trained to waste and pillage;

And wished the press-gang or the drum

Would, with its rattling music, come—

And sweep him from the village.