{Exeunt.
SCENE V.
Kitchen of the Widow LAKKEN’S Cottage.
A Door is seen open, into an inner Room.
MABEL, alone, (Sitting near the door of the inner room, spinning and singing{1}.)
{Footnote 1: This song is set to music by Mr. Webbe.}
Sleep, mother, sleep! in slumber blest,
It joys my heart to see thee rest.
Unfelt in sleep thy load of sorrow;
Breathe free and thoughtless of to-morrow;
And long, and light, thy slumbers last,
In happy dreams forget the past.
Sleep, mother, sleep! thy slumber’s blest;
It joys my heart to see thee rest.
Many’s the night she wak’d for me,
To nurse my helpless infancy:
While cradled on her patient arm,
She hush’d me with a mother’s charm.
Sleep, mother, sleep! thy slumber’s blest;
It joys my heart to see thee rest.
And be it mine to soothe thy age,
With tender care thy grief assuage,
This hope is left to poorest poor,
And richest child can do no more.
Sleep, mother, sleep! thy slumber’s blest;
It joys my heart to see thee rest.
While MABEL is singing the second stanza, OWEN and ANDREW HOPE enter. Mr. HOPE stops short, and listens: he makes a sign to OWEN to stand still, and not to interrupt MABEL—while OWEN approaches her on tiptoe.