THE DARK-EYED GENTLEMAN

I pitched my day’s leazings in Crimmercrock Lane,    

To tie up my garter and jog on again,    

When a dear dark-eyed gentleman passed there and said,    

In a way that made all o’ me colour rose-red,    

                “What do I see -           

                O pretty knee!”    

And he came and he tied up my garter for me.    

’Twixt sunset and moonrise it was, I can mind:    

Ah, ’tis easy to lose what we nevermore find! -    

Of the dear stranger’s home, of his name, I knew nought,            

But I soon knew his nature and all that it brought.    

                Then bitterly    

                Sobbed I that he    

Should ever have tied up my garter for me!    

Yet now I’ve beside me a fine lissom lad,            

And my slip’s nigh forgot, and my days are not sad;    

My own dearest joy is he, comrade, and friend,    

He it is who safe-guards me, on him I depend;    

                No sorrow brings he,    

                And thankful I be            

That his daddy once tied up my garter for me!