ii

When I was done with schooling days, Turn'd sixteen, My mother found me in a place My own bread to win. I had not been a month in place, A month from the start, When there show'd grace upon my face That smote a man's heart.

Tho' I was young and full of play, As full as a kitten, I knew to reckon to a day When his heart was smitten. You'll pick my logic all to holes, But here's my wonder: It is that God should knit two souls, And men tear them asunder.

For we were knit, no doubt of it, I as well as he; I peered in glass, my eyes were lit After he'd lookt at me. I knew not why my heart was glad, Or why it leapt, but so 'tis, The sharpest, sweetest pang I've had Was when he took notice.

And 'tis not favour makes a lad To a girl's mind, But 'tis himself makes good of bad, Or her stone-blind. And men may cheer at tales of wars, But every girl knows What makes her eyes to shine like stars And her face a rose.