But they were wanton, as he well replied,
And hoped their own would not be strongly tried:
Yet was he full of glee, and had his strokes 140
Of rustic wit, his repartees and jokes;
Nor was averse, ere yet he pledged his love,
To stray with damsels in the shady grove;
When he would tell them, as they walk’d along,
How the birds sang, and imitate their song.
In fact, our rustic had his proper taste; }
Was with peculiar arts and manners graced— }