Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/97

71 Stood waiting for my Comrade. When behold

An object that enticed my steps aside!

It was an Entry, narrow as a door;

A passage whose brief windings opened out

Into a platform; that lay, sheepfold-wise,

Enclosed between a single mass of rock

And one old moss-grown wall;—a cool Recess,

And fanciful! For, where the rock and wall

Met in an angle, hung a tiny roof,

Or penthouse, which most quaintly had been framed

By thrusting two rude sticks into the wall

And overlaying them with mountain sods;

To weather-fend a little turf-built seat

Whereon a full-grown man might rest, nor dread

The burning sunshine, or a transient shower;

But the whole plainly wrought by Children's hands!

Whose simple skill had thronged the grassy floor

With work of frame less solid, a proud show

Of baby-houses, curiously arranged;

Nor wanting ornament of walks between,

With mimic trees inserted in the turf,

And gardens interposed. Pleased with the sight

I could not choose but beckon to my Guide,