Down the green hill-side fro' the castle window

     Lady Jane spied Bill Amaranth a-workin';

     Day by day watched him go about his ample

                           Nursery garden.

     Cabbages thriv'd there, wi' a mort o' green-stuff—

     Kidney beans, broad beans, onions, tomatoes,

     Artichokes, seakale, vegetable marrows,

                           Early potatoes.

     Lady Jane cared not very much for all these:

     What she cared much for was a glimpse o' Willum

     Strippin' his brown arms wi' a view to horti-

                          -Cultural effort.

     Little guessed Willum, never extra-vain, that

     Up the green hill-side, i' the gloomy castle,

     Feminine eyes could so delight to view his

                           Noble proportions.

     Only one day while, in an innocent mood,

     Moppin' his brow ('cos 'twas a trifle sweaty)

     With a blue kerchief—lo, he spies a white 'un

                           Coyly responding.

     Oh, delightsome Love! Not a jot do you care

     For the restrictions set on human inter-

    -course by cold-blooded social refiners;

                           Nor do I, neither.

     Day by day, peepin' fro' behind the bean-sticks,

     Willum observed that scrap o' white a-wavin',

     Till his hot sighs out-growin' all repression

                           Busted his weskit.

     Lady Jane's guardian was a haughty Peer, who

     Clung to old creeds and had a nasty temper;

     Can we blame Willum that he hardly cared to

                           Risk a refusal?

     Year by year found him busy 'mid the bean-sticks,

     Wholly uncertain how on earth to take steps.

     Thus for eighteen years he beheld the maiden

                           Wave fro' her window.

     But the nineteenth spring, i' the Castle post-bag,

     Came by book-post Bill's catalogue o' seedlings

     Mark'd wi' blue ink at 'Paragraphs relatin'

                           Mainly to Pumpkins.'

    'W. A. can,' so the Lady Jane read,

    'Strongly commend that very noble Gourd, the

    Lady Jane, first-class medal, ornamental;

                           Grows to a great height.'

     Scarce a year arter, by the scented hedgerows—

     Down the mown hill-side, fro' the castle gateway—

     Came a long train and, i' the midst, a black bier,

                           Easily shouldered.

    'Whose is yon corse that, thus adorned wi' gourd-leaves,

     Forth ye bear with slow step?' A mourner answer'd,

    ''Tis the poor clay-cold body Lady Jane grew

                           Tired to abide in.'

    'Delve my grave quick, then, for I die to-morrow.

     Delve it one furlong fro' the kidney bean-sticks,

     Where I may dream she's goin' on precisely

                           As she was used to.'

     Hardly died Bill when, fro' the Lady Jane's grave,

     Crept to his white death-bed a lovely pumpkin:

     Climb'd the house wall and over-arched his head wi'

                           Billowy verdure.

     Simple this tale!—but delicately perfumed

     As the sweet roadside honeysuckle. That's why,

     Difficult though its metre was to tackle,

                           I'm glad I wrote it.