To make it freely flow requires a loving hand.
If but the hearer listen, hang upon his lips,
The speaker, though a corpse, grows eloquent, ne’er trips.
Attentive audiences still confer the powers,
To stutterers and stammerers, to speak for hours.135
If strangers should break in upon my privacy,
My womenkind retire, from mere delicacy.
But if my visitor be confidant and kin,
They come forth freely, play about with gladsome din.
Whatever best they know, of work, or play, or jest,