Returning soon, he with impatience seeks

His youthful friends, and shouts, and sings, and speaks;

Speaks a wild speech with action all is wild -

The children’s leader, and himself a child;

He spins their top, or, at their bidding, bends

His back, while o’er it leap his laughing friends;

Simple and weak, he acts the boy once more,

And heedless children call him Silly Shore.

TALE XII.

’SQUIRE THOMAS; OR THE PRECIPITATE CHOICE.