THE PADDOCK
Is it?.... Your sister’s done a lot for you....
And we’d all miss you, lassie. Just try, now,
And keep content.”
Thank Heaven! there came the yard.
And which of us was gladder, I don’t know.
I guess he’d said out everything he could—
I’d not a word to say.
Oh, whiles I wish
Andrew would grudge me food, or ’Lizabeth
Scold me, or strike me! Ah, no, no! I don’t.
Only....’twould make it easier—I’d go then,
Sure as a shot! but Love’s the toughest tether!—
What can I do? How am I to get out?
If Jeanie were but older! If they’d build
A creamery near!....Elizabeth might manage
Alone, now? No, she mightn’t! ’twouldn’t be fair.
Well, any way, Andrew needn’t mind—I work,
I don’t scamp. And I’m sure I sing, and laugh,
And play the fool, and play I’m happy: while....
Oh! they don’t understand. I want to go!
Where to? Oh, anywhere! And what to do?
Anything, almost!—All the same, I wish
I really knew....To tell the honest truth,
I don’t exactly know what I do want.
I only know I want it very badly!
....More, somehow, something that would give me more,
And take more out of me. Why don’t we have
Government Mind-Inspectors to sort out
And grade us, each one to our proper use?
Andrew? A farmer. Liz? A farmer’s wife.
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