f loss, and hope of gain,
The strife of happiness and pain,
Utterly dead! yet in the guise
Of little infants, when their eyes
Begin to follow to and fro 55
The persons that before them go,
He tracks her motions, quick or slow.
Her buoyant spirit can prevail
Where common cheerfulness would fail;
She strikes upon him with the heat 60
Of July suns; he feels it sweet;
An animal delight though dim!
'Tis all that now remains for him!

The more I looked, I wondered more--
And, while I scanned them o'er and o'er, [4] 65
Some inward trouble suddenly
Broke from the Matron's strong black eye--[5]
A remnant of uneasy light,
A flash of something over-bright![B]
Nor long this mystery did detain 70
My thoughts;--she told in pensive strain [6]
That she had borne a heavy yoke,
Been stricken by a twofold stroke;
Ill health of body; and had pined
Beneath worse ailments of the mind. 75

So be it!--but let praise ascend
To Him who is our lord and friend!
Who from disease and suffering
[7] Hath called for thee a second spring;
Repaid thee for that sore distress 80
By no untimely joyousness;
Which makes of thine a blissful state;
And cheers thy melancholy Mate!

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1827.

For ... 1807.]

[Variant 2:

1837.

... under Jedborough Tower
There liveth in the prime of glee,
A Woman, whose years are seventy-three,
And She ... 1807.

There lives a woman of seventy-three,
And she will dance and sing with thee, MS.

A Matron dwells, who though she bears
Our mortal complement of years,
Lives in the light of youthful glee, 1827.]

[Variant 3:

1827.

... for mirth and cheer? 1807.]

[Variant 4:

1827.

I look'd, I scann'd her o'er and o'er;
The more I look'd I wonder'd more: 1807.]

[Variant 5:

1837.

When suddenly I seem'd to espy
A trouble in her strong black eye; 1807.

A moment gave me to espy
A trouble . . . 1827.]

[Variant 6:

1827.

And soon she made this matter plain;
And told me, in a thoughtful strain, 1807.]

[Variant 7:

As bad almost as Life can br