23
Her Fathers name was couple’d there,
With death and sore disgrace;
“Desertion” was his crime,—dispair
Was written in her face.
24
She urg’d the justice from the spot,
And he at length compli’d;
She trembel’d for a parents lot,
She wept, she sobb’d, she cried.
25
Her Fathers heart, by fears opprest,
He stagger’d to a chair;
He falter’d, spoke, then on her breast,
He fell in wild dispair.
26
Oh! pitying Heav’n, preserve my child
Preserve her God from ill;
Then I in accents soft and mild
Will bear thy tortures still.
27
Then from his belt a fork and spoon
He plac’d before her view;
He paus’d, before he ask’d the boon,
While tears his cheeks bedew.