You once did use them strange:
O, are you kinder to them grown,
How came this happy change?
“Then Dermot tells how he dreamed of his wife’s sudden death, and his childrens’ misery as they cried about her dead body, while he was drunk in bed, and as he calls out in his misery, he wakes, and finds his wife by his side. The ballad ends:
‘I pressed her to my throbbing heart,
Whilst joyous tears did stream;
And ever since, I’ve heaven blest,
For sending me that dream.’
“Dermot turned teetotaller. The teetotallers were very much pleased with that song. The printer once sent me 5s. on account of it.