My mother thought, What ails the boy?
For I was alter'd, and began

To move about the house with joy,
And with the certain step of man.

I loved the brimming wave that swam Thro' quiet meadows round the mill, The sleepy pool above the dam,

The pool beneath it never still,

The meal-sacks on the whiten'd floor,

The dark round of the dripping wheel, very air about the door

The

Made misty with the floating meal.

And oft in ramblings on the wold,

When April nights began to blow,
And April's crescent glimmer'd cold,
I saw the village lights below;
I knew your taper far away,

And full at heart of trembling hope,
From off the wold I came, and lay

Upon the freshly-flower'd slope.

The deep brook groan'd beneath the mill

66

;

And by that lamp," I thought, "she sits!"

The white chalk-quarry from the hill

Gleam'd to the flying moon by fits.

"O that I were beside her now!
O will she answer if I call?

O would she give me vow for vow,
Sweet Alice, if I told her all?"

Sometimes I saw you sit and spin;
And, in the pauses of the wind,
Sometimes I heard you sing within;

Sometimes your shadow cross'd the blind;

At last you rose and moved the light,

And the long shadow of the chair

Flitted across into the night,

And all the casement darken'd there.

But when at last I dared to speak,

The lanes, you know, were white with

Your ripe lips moved not, but your cheek

may:

Flush'd like the coming of the day;

And so it was-half-sly, half-shy,

You would, and would not, little one! Although I pleaded tenderly,

And you and I were all alone.

And slowly was my mother brought

To yield consent to my

desire :

She wish'd me happy, but she thought
I might have look'd a little higher;
And I was young-too young to wed:

"Yet must I love her for your sake ; Go fetch your Alice here," she said: Her eyelid quiver'd as she spake.

And down I went to fetch my bride :
But, Alice, you were ill at ease;
This dress and that by turns you tried,

Too fearful that you should not please. I loved you better for your fears,

I knew you could not look but well;

And dews, that would have fall'n in tears,

I kiss'd away before they fell.

The deep brook groan'd beneath the mill;

And "by that lamp," I thought, "she sits!"

The white chalk-quarry from the hill

Gleam'd to the flying moon by fits.

"O that I were beside her now!
O will she answer if I call?

O would she give me vow for vow,
Sweet Alice, if I told her all?"

Sometimes I saw you sit and spin;
And, in the pauses of the wind,
Sometimes I heard you sing within;

Sometimes your shadow cross'd the blind;

At last you rose and moved the light,

And the long shadow of the chair

Flitted across into the night,

And all the casement darken'd there.

But when at last I dared

The lanes, you know

Your ripe lips moved

Flush'd like the c

And so it was-half-sly, half-shy,

You would, and would not, little one!

Although I pleaded tenderly,

And you and I were all alone.

And slowly was my mother brought

To yield consent to my

desire :

She wish'd me happy, but she thought
I might have look'd a little higher;
And I was young-too young to wed:
"Yet must I love her for your sake ;
Go fetch your Alice here," she said :

Her eyelid quiver'd as she spake.

And down I went to fetch my

bride :

But, Alice, you were ill at ease;

This dress and that by turns you tried,

Too fearful that you should not please. I loved you better for your fears,

I knew you could not look but well;

And dews, that would have fall'n in tears,

I kiss'd away before they fell.