Under the spreading favor of these pines,

Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side

To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit

As the kind hospitable woods provide.

They left me then when the grey-hooded Even,

Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,

Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain.

But where they are, and why they came not back,

Is now the labor of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest

They had engaged their wandering steps too far;