Then would he wander by the river's side,

And fix his eyes upon the falling tide;

The deep dry ditch, the rushes in the fen,

And mossy crag-pits were his lodgings then:

There, to his discontented thoughts a prey,

The melancholy mortal pined away.

The neighb'ring poor at length began to speak

Of Abel's ramblings—he'd been gone a week,

They knew not where; and little care they took

210