Lights in the valley twinkled one by one,

The starlings whirled in dropping multitudes.

Dusk fingered into one earth's many moods,

Back to The Roughs he walked; he neared the brook;

A lamp burned in the farm; he saw; his fingers shook.

He had to cross the brook, to cross a field,

Where daffodils were thick when years were young.

Then, were she there, his fortunes should be sealed.

Down the mud trackway to the brook he swung;

Then while the passion trembled on his tongue,