The Beggar

‘Twas sunset when
Adown the glen,
A beggar came with glee;
His eye was bright,
His heart was light,
His step was bold and free:
And he danced a merry measure
To his rollick roundelay;
“Oh a beggar’s life is pleasure,
For he works nor night nor day!”

“Let fathers toil,
Let mothers moil,
And daughters milk the kine;
What lord can boast
So brave a host
Of servants as are mine?
The world is my wide mansion,
Mankind my servants be,
And many a lady in the land,
Would live and beg with me!”

The beggar laugh’d,
The beggar quaff’d,
While many a jest he told;
The miller swore
He ne’er before
Such beggar did behold;
The mother filled his can,
And the daughter smiled as he
Did toast her as the loveliest lass
That eyes did ever see.

Now all is still
Within the mill,
Even the goodwife’s tongue;
All sleep but two–
You may guess who,
Or vainly I have sung.
The beggar cast his rags,
Her lover Mary spied,
The miller lost a daughter
And the hunter gained a bride!