| |
| A HAPPY day at Whitsuntide, | |
| As soon ’s the zun begun to vall, | |
| We all strolled up the steep hill-zide | |
| To Meldon, gret an’ small; | |
| Out where the Castle wall stood high | 5 |
| A-mwoldrèn to the zunny sky. | |
| |
| An’ there wi’ Jenny took a stroll | |
| Her youngest sister, Poll, so gaÿ, | |
| Bezide John Hind, ah! merry soul, | |
| An’ mid her wedlock faÿ; | 10 |
| An’ at our zides did plaÿ an’ run | |
| My little maid an’ smaller son. | |
| |
| Above the beäten mwold upsprung | |
| The driven doust, a-spreadèn light, | |
| An’ on the new-leaved thorn, a-hung, | 15 |
| Wer wool a-quiv’rèn white; | |
| An’ corn, a-sheenèn bright, did bow, | |
| On slopèn Meldon’s zunny brow. | |
| |
| There, down the roofless wall did glow | |
| The zun upon the grassy vloor, | 20 |
| An’ weakly-wandrèn winds did blow, | |
| Unhindered by a door; | |
| An’ smokeless now avore the zun | |
| Did stan’ the ivy-girded tun. | |
| |
| My bwoy did watch the daws’ bright wings | 25 |
| A-flappen vrom their ivy bow’rs; | |
| My wife did watch my maïd’s light springs, | |
| Out here an’ there vor flow’rs; | |
| And John did zee noo tow’rs, the pleäce | |
| Vor him had only Polly’s feäce. | 30 |
| |
| An’ there, of all that pried about | |
| The walls, I overlooked em best, | |
| An’ what o’ that? Why, I meäde out | |
| Noo mwore than all the rest: | |
| That there wer woonce the nest of zome | 35 |
| That wer a-gone avore we come. | |
| |
| When woonce above the tun the smoke | |
| Did wreathy blue among the trees, | |
| An’ down below, the livèn vo’k | |
| Did tweil as brisk as bees; | 40 |
| Or zit wi’ weary knees, the while | |
| The sky wer lightless to their tweil. | |
| |
