Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/66

40 To a kind Master on a distant farm

Now happily apprenticed—"I perceive

You look at me, and you have cause; to-day

I have been travelling far; and many days

About the fields I wander, knowing this

Only, that what I seek I cannot find.

And so I waste my time: for I am changed;

And to myself, said she, have done much wrong

And to this helpless Infant. I have slept

Weeping, and weeping I have waked; my tears

Have flowed as if my body were not such

As others are; and I could never die.

But I am now in mind and in my heart

More easy; and I hope," said she, "that heaven

Will give me patience to endure the things

Which I behold at home." It would have grieved

Your very soul to see her; Sir, I feel

The story linger in my heart: I fear

'Tis long and tedious; but my spirit clings

To that poor Woman:—so familiarly

Do I perceive her manner, and her look,

And presence, and so deeply do I feel

Her goodness, that, not seldom, in my walks