(AN INCIDENT OF FROOM VALLEY)
"Thy husband--poor, poor Heart!--is dead--Dead, out by Moreford Rise;
A bull escaped the barton-shed, Gored him, and there he lies!"- "Ha, ha--go away! 'Tis a tale, methink, Thou joker Kit!" laughed she.
"I've known thee many a year, Kit Twink, And ever hast thou fooled me!"- "But, Mistress Damon--I can swear Thy goodman John is dead!
And soon th'lt hear their feet who bear His body to his bed."So unwontedly sad was the merry man's face -That face which had long deceived -
That she gazed and gazed; and then could trace The truth there; and she believed.
She laid a hand on the dresser-ledge, And scanned far Egdon-side;And stood; and you heard the wind-swept sedge And the rippling Froom; till she cried:
"O my chamber's untidied, unmade my bed Though the day has begun to wear!
'What a slovenly hussif!' it will be said, When they all go up my stair!"She disappeared; and the joker stood Depressed by his neighbour's doom, And amazed that a wife struck to widowhood Thought first of her unkempt room.
But a fortnight thence she could take no food, And she pined in a slow decay;While Kit soon lost his mournful mood And laughed in his ancient way.
1894.
