Page:The Man with the Hoe, Markham, 1900.djvu/56



A Leaf from the Devil's Jest-Book

Beside the sewing-table chained and bent,

They stitch for the lady, tyrannous and proud—

For her a wedding-gown, for them a shroud;

They stitch and stitch, but never mend the rent

Torn in life's golden curtains. Glad Youth went,

And left them alone with Time; and now if bowed

With burdens they should sob and cry aloud,—

Wondering, the rich would look from their content.

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