The mother, frighten’d, begg’d him to refrain,
And not his credit or his linen stain.
While the kind friend so gently blamed the deed,
He smiled in tears, and wish’d her to proceed;
For the boy pleased her, and that roguish eye }
And daring look were cause of many a sigh, 170}
When she had thought how much would such quick temper try; }
And oft she felt a kind of gathering gloom,
Sad, and prophetic of the ills to come.
Years fled unmark’d; the lady taught no more