In vain he tried the shiftless Lad to guide,
And yet ’twas time that something should be tried:
He at the village-school perchance might gain
All that such mind could gather and retain;
Yet the good Dame affirm’d her favourite child
Was apt and studious, though sedate and mild;
“That he on many a learned point could speak,
And that his body, not his mind, was weak.”
The Father doubted - but to school was sent
The timid Stephen, weeping as he went: