Page:Poetical sketches reprint (1868).djvu/56

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HEN silver snow decks Susan's clothes, And jewel hangs at th' shepherd's nose, The blushing bank is all my care, With hearth so red, and walls so fair. "Heap the sea-coal, come, heap it higher, "The oaken log lay on the fire:" The well-wash'd stools, a circling row, With lad and lass, how fair the show! The merry can of nut-brown ale, The laughing jest, the love-sick tale, Till, tired of chat, the game begins, The lasses prick the lads with pins; Roger from Dolly twitch'd the stool, She falling, kiss'd the ground, poor fool! She blush'd so red, with side-long glance At hobnail Dick, who grieved the chance. But now for Blind-man's Buff they call; Of each incumbrance clear the hall— Jenny her silken kerchief folds, And blear-eyed Will the black lot holds, Now laughing, stops, with "Silence, hush!"