For Harry came in, an' I flung him the letter that drove me wild,

An' he told it me all at once, as simple as any child,

"What can it matter, my lass, what I did wi' my single life?

I ha' been as true to you as ever a man to his wife;

An' she was n't one o' the worst." "Then," I said, "I'm none o' the best." Ain't you, my love? Come, come, little wife, let

An' he smiled at me,

it rest!

The man is n't like the woman, no need to make such a stir."

But he anger'd me all the more, an' I said "You were keeping with her, When I was a-loving you all along an' the same as before."

An' he did n't speak for a while, an' he anger'd me more and more. Then he patted my hand in his gentle way, "Let bygones be!" "Bygones! you kept yours hush'd," I said, "when you married me! Bygones ma' be come-agains; an' she

in her shame an' her sin

You'll have her to nurse my child, if I die o' my lying in!

You'll make her its second mother! I hate her an' I hate you!" Ah, Harry, my man, you had better ha' beaten me black an' blue Than ha' spoken as kind as you did, when I were so crazy wi' spite, "Wait a little, my lass, I am sure it'll all come right."

XIV.

An' he took three turns in the rain, an' I watch'd him, an' when he came in I felt that my heart was hard, he was all wet thro' to the skin, An' I never said "off wi' the wet," I never said "on wi' the dry,"

So I knew my heart was hard, when he came to bid me good-by. "You said that you hated me, Ellen, but that is n't true, you know; I am going to leave you a bit — you 'I kiss me before I go?"

He flung it among his fellows - I'll none of it, said my son.

And he calls to me now from the church and not from the gibbet -- for hark! Nay-you can hear it yourself - it is coming-shaking the walls Willy the moon 's in a cloud

Good night. I am going. He calls.

THE NORTHERN COBBLER.

I.

WAAIT till our Sally cooms in, fur thou mun a' sights1 to tell.

Eh, but I be maäin glad to seeä tha sa 'arty an' well.'

"Cast awaäy on a disolut land wi' a vartical soon!" 2

Strange fur to goä fur to think what saäil

ors a' scean an' a' doon; "Summat to drink - sa' 'ot?' I'a nowt but Adam's wine: What's the 'eät o' this little 'ill-side to the 'eät o' the line?

1 The vowels aï, pronounced separately, though in the closest conjunction, best render the sound of the long i and y in this dialect. But since such words as craïin', daëin', whaï, aï (I), etc., look awkward except in a page of express phonetics, I have thought it better to leave the simple i and y, and to trust that my readers will give them the broader pronunciation.

2 The oo short, as in "wood."

II.

"What's i' tha bottle a-stanning theer?" I'll tell tha. Gin.

But if thou wants thy grog, tha mun goä fur it down to the inn. Naayfur I be maäin-glad, but thaw tha Thou gits naw gin fro' the bottle theer, was iver sa dry, an' I'll tell tha why.

III.

Meä an' thy sister was married, when wur it? back-end o' June,

Ten year sin', and wa 'greed as well as a fiddle i' tune :

I could fettle and clump owd booöts and shoes wi' the best on 'em all, As fer as fro' Thursby thurn hup to Harmsby and Hutterby Hall. We was busy as beeäs i' the bloom an' as 'appy as 'art could think, An' then the babby wur burn, and then I taäkes to the drink.

IV.

An' I weänt gaäinsaäy it, my lad, thaw I be hafe shaämed on it now, We could sing a good song at the Plow, we could sing a good song at the Plow; Thaw once of a frosty night I slither'd an' hurted my huck,

An' I coom'd neck-an-crop soometimes slaäpe down i' the squad an' the muck :

An' once I fowt wi' the Taäilor— not hafe

ov a man, my lad Fur he scrawm'd an' scratted my faäce

like a cat, an' it maäde 'er sa mad That Sally she turn'd a tongue-banger,

an' raäted ma, "Sottin' thy braäins Guzzlin' an' soäkin' an' smoäkin' an' hawmin' 5 about i' the laänes, Soä sow-droonk that tha doesn not touch thy 'at to the Squire ;

An' I loook'd cock-eyed at my noäse an' I seeäd 'im a-gittin' o' fire; But sin' I wur hallus i' liquor an' hallus as droonk as a king, Foälks' coostom flitted awaäy like a kite wi' a brokken string.