Page:The Seaside and the Fireside.djvu/119

 While the bride, with roguish eyes,

Sporting with them, now escapes and cries:

"Those who catch me

Married verily

This year shall be!"

And all pursue with eager haste,

And all attain what they pursue,

And touch her pretty apron fresh and new,

And the linen kirtle round her waist.

Meanwhile, whence comes it that among

These youthful maidens fresh and fair,

So joyous, with such laughing air,

Baptiste stands sighing, witffisilent tongue?

And yet the bride is fair and young!

Is it Saint Joseph would say to us all,

That love, o'er-hasty, precedeth a fall?

O, no! for a maiden frail, I trow,

Never bore so lofty a brow!