'Boy,' said the stranger, 'wilt thou hold my steed,
Till I walk round the corner of that mere?
When I return I will repay thee well.'"
This stranger who has approached leaves the horse with the boy, and never does return. All the hot day the boy stands holding the horse on the dusty road, till the steed, taking alarm at a thunder-storm, breaks away,—
"And never more
Was in those regions seen."…
As for the boy, he lifted up his basket, and he felt
"With his left hand how it affected was
By the long day and burning sun of Heaven.
It was all firm and flat—no ridges rose