It was years and years ago, but still I never can forget
How grey it looked that morning; the air was cold and wet;
Only the wind would howl sometimes, or else the trees would creak--
All night I'd 'a given anything to hear somebody speak.
He heard me shut the door again, and started up so wild
And haggard that I 'most broke down. I wasn't reconciled
To have the poor thing run all day, chased like a wolf or bear;
But I knew he'd brought it on himself; his punishment was fair.
I gave him something more to eat; he couldn't touch it then,
"God pity you, poor soul!" says I. May I not see again
A face like his, as he stood in the door and looked which way
to go!
I watched him making towards the swamps, dead-lame and moving slow.
He had hardly spoken a word to me, but as he went away
He thanked me, and gave me such a look! 'twill last to my dying
day.
"May God have mercy on me, as you have had!" says he,
And I choked, and couldn't say a word, and he limped away from me.
John came home bright and early. He'd fell and hurt his head,
And he stopped up to his father's; but he'd sent word, he said,
And told the boy to fetch me there--my cousin, Johnny Black--
But he went off with some other folks, who thought they'd found the
track.
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