“Dearie me, People’s William,” the young man cried.

“It grieves me to hear you speak so,

But still I should like” (here he gazed at the corn)

“Something more of your history to know.”

“In the years lately pass’d,” People’s William replied,

“I knew not the meaning of rest;

For I cut down big trees by way of relief,

Then return’d to my desk with new zest.

I wrote, towards the end, for some six magazines,

“Every month several pamphlets likewise,