ARGUMENT. A summer forenoon The Author reaches a ruined Cottage upon a Common, and there meets with a revered Friend, the Wanderer, of whom he gives an account The Wanderer while resting under the shade of the Trees that surround the Cottage relates the History of its last Inhabitant. BOOK FIRST. THE WANDERER. 'Twas summer, and the sun had mounted high : A surface dappled o'er with shadows flung A twilight of its own, an ample shade, Where the wren warbles; while the dreaming Man, Half conscious of the soothing melody, With side-long eye looks out upon the scene, By power of that impending covert thrown Upon that open level stood a Grove, The wish'd-for port to which my course was bound. alone Him had I mark'd the day before Turn'd tow'rd the sun then setting, while that staff Detain'd for contemplation or repose, At such unthought-of meeting. — For the night We were tried Friends: amid a pleasant vale, In the antique market village where were pass'd My school-days, an apartment he had own'd, To which at intervals the Wanderer drew, And found a kind of home or harbour there. He loved me; from a swarm of rosy Boys Singled out me, as he in sport would say, For my grave looks too thoughtful for my years. As I grew up, it was my best delight To be his chosen Comrade. Many a time, On holidays, we rambled through the woods: We sate we walk'd; he pleased me with report |