Well, the next morning, as I did pass out on my way to my forge, whom
should I see in the garden but my Keren and Master Robert Hacket! and if
e'er a woman was possessed o' a devil, 'twas just that lass o' mine
then, comrade. She had caused young Hacket to climb up into a pear-tree,
and while that he was up there she did bear away the ladder by which he
had mounted, and she saith to him,

"Now, Master Robin, I am going to sing thee a song. Wilt thou listen?"

"With all my heart," saith he. So he leaned on his elbow, stretched out
like a young panther along the limb o' th' tree, and looked down on
her. Now, as I live, down went that jade on her knees in the grass, and
she lifts up her two pretty hands to him as though in prayer, and thus
sings she (I knew the song by heart):

"'Listen, Robin, while I woo.
This world's stale with repetition:
I'll not do as others do;
Haste thee, love, to my tuition.
Robin, I'll make love to you,
As men to other maidens do.

"'Oh, what eyes my Robin hath!
April fields own no such blue;
In the luscious aftermath
There's no flower so fair to view.
Robin, Robin, hear me woo.
All my soul's in love with you!

"'Robin, will you marry me?--
Thus upon my knees I sue:
O' my word I'll harry thee
Like as men their sweethearts do.
Robin, as I live I'm true:
Will you wed me, Robin?--Will you?'"

Now, what chanced thereupon I think thou wilt agree with me, comrade, in
saying it did but serve her right. Down falls he like a ripe pomewater
at her side, and takes her about the waist, and sets his mouth to hers
(all in a twink, comrade; thou hadst not time to shape thy mouth for a
whistle ere 'twas all done, or verily my mouth had given forth something
besides whistling), and saith he,

"That will I, lass; an' if thou be not my wife ere that snail-coming new
moon doth thrust out her horns, my name is not Hacket, nor will thine
be!"

Now, comrade, though it doth shame me verily so to speak o' mine own
flesh, I saw by her pretending to push him away that she did mightily
relish his kisses; for, by my troth! had she sought to scuffle with him
'twould 'a' been as snug an encounter as when day and night wrestle for
the last bit o' a June sky.

And she saith to him, feigning to scowl, "How now