And at night he spake to the listening stars
And charged them a guard to keep
On the hamlet of Inver-Mudal there
And the maid in her innocent sleep,
Till the years should go by; and they should see
Love Meenie take her stand
'Mong the maidens around the footstool of God—
She gentlest of all the band!
He tore the leaf out, folded it, and put it in his pocket.
'Another one for the little bookie that's never to be seen,' said he, with a kind of laugh; for indeed he treated himself to a good deal of satire, and would rather have blown his brains out than that the neighbourhood should have known he was writing these verses about Meenie Douglas.