"Rest, little Young One, rest; thou hast forgot the day When my Father found thee first in places far away; Many flocks were on the hills, but thou wert own'd by none, And thy mother from thy side for evermore was gone.

"He took thee in his arms, and in pity brought thee home. A blessed day for thee! then whither wouldst thou roam? A faithful Nurse thou hast; the dam that did thee yean Upon the mountain tops no kinder could have been.

"Thou know'st that twice a day I have brought thee in this Can

Fresh water from the brook, as clear as ever ran;

And twice in the day, when the ground is wet with dew, I bring thee draughts of milk, warm milk it is and new.

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Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now, Then I'll yoke thee to my cart like a pony in the plough ; My Playmate thou shalt be; and when the wind is cold Our hearth shall be thy bed, our house shall be thy fold.

"It will not, will not rest! - Poor Creature, can it be That 'tis thy mother's heart which is working so in thee? Things that I know not of belike to thee are dear,

And dreams of things which thou canst neither see nor hear.

"Alas, the mountain tops that look so green and fair!

I've heard of fearful winds and darkness that come there;
The little brooks that seem all pastime and all play,
When they are angry, roar like Lions for their prey.

"Here thou need'st not dread the raven in the sky; Night and day thou art safe, our cottage is hard by. Why bleat so after me? Why pull so at thy chain?

Sleep and at break of day I will come to thee again!”

As homeward through the lane I went with lazy feet,

This song to myself did I oftentimes repeat;

And it seem'd, as I retraced the ballad line by line,
That but half of it was hers, and one half of it was mine.

Again, and once again, did I repeat the song;

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Nay," said I, "more than half to the Damsel must belong, For she look'd with such a look, and she spake with such

a tone,

That I almost received her heart into my own."

XII.

THE IDLE SHEPHERD-BOYS ;

OR, DUNGEON-GHYLL FORCE. *

A Pastoral.

I.

THE valley rings with mirth and joy;
Among the hills the echoes play

A never, never ending song,
To welcome in the May.

The Magpie chatters with delight;
The mountain Raven's youngling brood

Have left the Mother and the Nest;

And they go rambling east and west

In search of their own food;

Or through the glittering Vapours dart

In very wantonness of heart.

*Ghyll, in the dialect of Cumberland and Westmoreland, i

a short, and, for the most part, a steep narrow valley, with a stream running through it. Force is the word universally employed in these dialects for Waterfall.

II.

Beneath a rock, upon the grass,
Two Boys are sitting in the sun;
Boys that have had no work to do,
Or work that now is done.

On pipes of sycamore they play
The fragments of a Christmas Hymn;
Or with that plant which in our dale
We call Stag-horn, or Fox's Tail,
Their rusty Hats they trim:

And thus, as happy as the Day,

Those Shepherds wear the time away.

III.

Along the river's stony marge

The Sand-lark chants a joyous song;
The Thrush is busy in the wood,
And carols loud and strong.

A thousand Lambs are on the rocks,
All newly born! both earth and sky
Keep jubilee; and more than all,
Those Boys with their green Coronal;
They never hear the cry,

That plaintive cry! which up the hill

Comes from the depth of Dungeon-Ghyll.

IV.

Said Walter, leaping from the ground, "Down to the stump of yon old yew We'll for our Whistles run a race."

Away the Shepherds flew.

They leapt they ran—and when they came Right opposite to Dungeon-Ghyll,

Seeing that he should lose the prize,

Stop!" to his comrade Walter cries

He stopped with no good will:

Said Walter then, "Your task is here, "Twill baffle you for half a year.

V.

"Cross, if you dare, where I shall cross Come on, and in my footsteps tread!"

The other took him at his word,

And followed as he led.

It was a spot which you may see

If ever you to Langdale go;

Into a chasm a mighty Block

Hath fallen, and made a Bridge of rock:

The gulf is deep below;

And in a basin black and small

Receives a lofty Waterfall.