Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/346

320 From which it did itself imbibe a ray

Of pleasing lustre.—But no more of this;

I better love to sprinkle on the sod

Which now divides the Pair, or rather say

Which still unites them, praises, like heaven's dew,

Without distinction falling upon both.

—Yoke-fellows were they long and well approved

To endure and to perform.

With frugal pains,

Yet in a course of generous discipline,

Did this poor Churchman and his Consort rear

Their progeny.—Of three—sent forth to try

The paths of fortune in the open world,

One, not endowed with firmness to resist

The suit of pleasure, to his native Vale

Returned, and humbly tilled his Father's glebe.

—The youngest Daughter, too, in duty stayed

To lighten her declining Mother's care.

But, ere the bloom was passed away which health

Preserved to adorn a cheek no longer young,

Her heart, in course of nature, finding place

For new affections, to the holy state

Of wedlock they conducted her; but still