For this poor crawling helpless wretch
Some Horseman who was passing by
A penny on the ground had thrown;
But the poor Cripple was alone,
And could not stoop-no help was nigh.

Inch-thick the dust lay on the ground, For it had long been droughty weather So with his staff the Cripple wrought Among the dust till he had brought The halfpennies together.

It chanced that Andrew passed that way Just at the time; and there he found The Cripple in the mid-day heat Standing alone, and at his feet

He saw the penny on the ground.

VOL. II.

He stooped and took the penny up:
And when the Cripple nearer drew,
Quoth Andrew, "Under half-a-crown,
What a man finds is all his own,
And so, my friend, good day to you."

And hence I said, that Andrew's boys Will all be trained to waste and pillage; And wished the press-gang, or the drum With its tantara sound, would come

And sweep him from the village!

RUTH.

RUTH.

When Ruth was left half desolate

Her Father took another Mate;
And Ruth, not seven years old,
A slighted Child, at her own will
Went wandering over dale and hill,
In thoughtless freedom bold.

And she had made a Pipe of straw, And from that oaten Pipe could draw

All sounds of winds and floods

;

Had built a Bower upon the green,

As if she from her birth had been

An Infant of the woods,