ARGUMENT. PAGE 3, A summer forenoon.-3, The Author reaches a ruined Cottage upon a Common, and there meets with a revered Friend, the Wanderer, of whose education and course of life he gives an account.21, The Wanderer, while resting under the shade of the Trees that surround the Cottage, relates the History of its last Inhabitant. BOOK FIRST. THE WANDERER. 'Twas summer, and the sun had mounted high : A surface dappled o'er with shadows flung Where the wren warbles, while the dreaming man, With side-long eye looks out upon the scene, By power of that impending covert, thrown, To finer distance. Mine was at that hour B Far other lot, yet with good hope that soon Rest, and be welcomed there to livelier joy. Upon that open moorland stood a grove, The wished-for port to which my course was bound. Thither I came, and there, amid the gloom Spread by a brotherhood of lofty elms, Appeared a roofless Hut; four naked walls That stared upon each other!—I looked round, And to my wish and to my hope espied The Friend I sought; a Man of reverend age, But stout and hale, for travel unimpaired. There was he seen upon the cottage-bench, Recumbent in the shade, as if asleep; An iron-pointed staff lay at his side. Him had I marked the day before—alone And stationed in the public way, with face Afforded, to the figure of the man Detained for contemplation or repose, Graceful support; his countenance as he stood Was hidden from my view, and he remained Unrecognised; but, stricken by the sight, With slackened footsteps I advanced, and soon We were tried Friends: amid a pleasant vale, To be his chosen comrade. Many a time, As cool refreshing water, by the care Through a parched meadow-ground, in time of drought. Still deeper welcome found his pure discourse: |