Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/107

81 And Advocate of humble life, I now

Will force upon his notice; undeterred

By the example of his own pure course,

And that respect and deference which a soul

May fairly claim, by niggard age enriched

In what it values most—the love of God

And his frail creature Man;—but ye shall hear.

I talk—and ye are standing in the sun

Without refreshment!"

Saying this he led

Towards the Cottage;—homely was the spot;

And, to my feeling, ere we reached the door,

Had almost a forbidding nakedness;

Less fair, I grant, even painfully less fair,

Than it appeared when from the Valley's brink

We had looked down upon it. All within,

As left by that departed company,

Was silent; and the solitary clock

Ticked, as I thought, with melancholy sound.—

Following our Guide we clomb the cottage stairs

And reached a small apartment dark and low,

Which was no sooner entered than our Host

Said gaily, "This is my domain, my cell,