In Amesbury lived also the “Jettie” at whose challenge that he had never written a love poem, Whittier wrote “The Henchman.” It was of her the poet sang:
“To Jettie for her dancing nights,
Slippers dropped from Northern lights.”
Young friends in his own town, and some of them members of his party in summer places, with their merry young voices and laughter helped the poet to many a pleasant hour—although it is safe to say that he always did his share in securing these.
He questioned laughingly a young girl giving an account of a lecture upon “Chivalry” to which she had just been listening.
“How would thee like,” he said, “to have a knight roaming around the world doing exploits in thy name?”
She retorted that unless he went to serve his country she would prefer to have him stay at home. To this he responded at once:
“Thy father [in service of his fellow-men] is a better knight-errant than any in those days.”