“And her modest answer and graceful air
Show her wise and good as she is fair.
“Would she were mine, and I to-day,
Like her, a harvester of hay;
“No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs,
Nor weary lawyers with endless tongues,
“But low of cattle and song of birds,
And health and quiet and loving words.”
But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,
And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.