My thirst I slaked, and, from the cheerless spot

Withdrawing, straightway to the shade returned

Where sate the old Man on the cottage-bench;

And, while, beside him, with uncovered head,

I yet was standing, freely to respire,

And cool my temples in the fanning air,

Thus did he speak. "I see around me here

Things which you cannot see: we die, my Friend,

Nor we alone, but that which each man loved

And prized in his peculiar nook of earth