Yet, while professing love, she answer’d still -
“You can befriend me, but you want the will.”
They parted thus, and Anna went her way,
To shed her secret sorrows, and to pray.
Stafford, amused with books, and fond of home,
By reading oft dispell’d the evening gloom;
History or tale - all heard him with delight,
And thus was pass’d this memorable night.
The listening Friend bestow’d a flattering smile:
A sleeping boy the mother held the while;