The beasts and birds are fast asleep." And said the hour was early still, The dew not fall'n, the wind not chill; Listening ever, but not catching The customary cry, "Come buy, come buy," Once discerning even one goblin Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling ; That used to tramp along the glen, Of brisk fruit-merchant men. Till Lizzie urged, "O Laura, come; .The stars rise, the moon bends her arc, Each glowworm winks her spark, Let us get home before the night grows dark : For clouds may gather Though this is summer weather, Put out the lights and drench us through; Then if we lost our way what should we do?" Laura turned cold as stone To find her sister heard that cry alone, That goblin cry, "Come buy our fruits, come buy." Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit? Her tree of life drooped from the root: She said not one word in her heart's sore ache; Then sat up in a passionate yearning, And gnashed her teeth for baulked desire, and wept As if her heart would break. Day after day, night after night, Laura kept watch in vain In sullen silence of exceeding pain. She never caught again the goblin cry : "Come buy, come buy; She never spied the goblin men Hawking their fruits along the glen : But when the noon waxed bright Her hair grew thin and grey; She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn. To swift decay and burn Her fire away. One day remembering her kernel-stone She set it by a wall that faced the south; Dewed it with tears, hoped for a root, Watched for a waxing shoot, But there came none; It never saw the sun, It never felt the trickling moisture run : While with sunk eyes and faded mouth She dreamed of melons, as a traveller sees False waves in desert drouth With shade of leaf-crowned trees, And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze. She no more swept the house, Tended the fowls or cows, Fetched honey, kneaded cakes of wheat, But sat down listless in the chimney-nook Tender Lizzie could not bear To watch her sister's cankerous care Yet not to share. She night and morning Caught the goblins' cry: "Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy: Beside the brook, along the glen, Poor Laura could not hear; Longed to buy fruit to comfort her, She thought of Jeanie in her grave, But who for joys brides hope to have In her gay prime, In earliest Winter time, With the first glazing rime, With the first snow-fall of crisp Winter time. Till Laura dwindling Seemed knocking at Death's door : Then Lizzie weighed no more Better and worse; But put a silver penny in her purse, Kissed Laura, crossed the heath with clumps of furze At twilight, halted by the brook : And for the first time in her life Began to listen and look. Laughed every goblin When they spied her peeping: Puffing and blowing, Chuckling, clapping, crowing, Clucking and gobbling, Mopping and mowing, |