Tabitha dressed for her wedding:-
   “Tabby, why look so sad?”
“—­O I feel a great gloominess spreading, spreading,
   Instead of supremely glad! . . .

   “I called on Carry last night,
   And he came whilst I was there,
Not knowing I’d called.  So I kept out of sight,
   And I heard what he said to her: 

   “’—­Ah, I’d far liefer marry
   you, Dear, to-morrow!’ he said,
’But that cannot be.’—­O I’d give him to Carry,
   And willingly see them wed,

   “But how can I do it when
   His baby will soon be born? 
After that I hope I may die.  And then
   She can have him.  I shall not mourn!’

END OF THE YEAR 1912

You were here at his young beginning,
   You are not here at his aged end;
Off he coaxed you from Life’s mad spinning,
   Lest you should see his form extend
      Shivering, sighing,
      Slowly dying,
   And a tear on him expend.

So it comes that we stand lonely
   In the star-lit avenue,
Dropping broken lipwords only,
   For we hear no songs from you,
      Such as flew here
      For the new year
   Once, while six bells swung thereto.

THE CHIMES PLAY “LIFE’S A BUMPER!”

“Awake!  I’m off to cities far away,”
I said; and rose, on peradventures bent. 
The chimes played “Life’s a Bumper!” on that day
To the measure of my walking as I went: 
Their sweetness frisked and floated on the lea,
As they played out “Life’s a Bumper!” there to me.

“Awake!” I said.  “I go to take a bride!”
—­The sun arose behind me ruby-red
As I journeyed townwards from the countryside,
The chiming bells saluting near ahead. 
Their sweetness swelled in tripping tings of glee
As they played out “Life’s a Bumper!” there to me.

“Again arise.”  I seek a turfy slope,
And go forth slowly on an autumn noon,
And there I lay her who has been my hope,
And think, “O may I follow hither soon!”
While on the wind the chimes come cheerily,
Playing out “Life’s a Bumper!” there to me.

1913.

“I WORKED NO WILE TO MEET YOU” (SONG)

I worked no wile to meet you,
   My sight was set elsewhere,
I sheered about to shun you,
   And lent your life no care. 
I was unprimed to greet you
   At such a date and place,
Constraint alone had won you
   Vision of my strange face!

You did not seek to see me
   Then or at all, you said,
—­Meant passing when you neared me,
   But stumblingblocks forbade. 
You even had thought to flee me,
   By other mindings moved;
No influent star endeared me,
   Unknown, unrecked, unproved!

What, then, was there to tell us
   The flux of flustering hours
Of their own tide would bring us
   By no device of ours
To where the daysprings well us
   Heart-hydromels that cheer,
Till Time enearth and swing us
   Round with the turning sphere.