Friend; ... if any one regard them with dislike, or be disposed to
condemn them, let the censure fall upon him, who, trusting in his own
sense of their merit, and their fitness for the place which they
occupy, _extorted_ them from the Authoress."

In the edition of 1845, he disclosed the authorship; and gave the more
natural title, 'By my Sister'. Other two poems by her were introduced
into the edition of 1815, and subsequent ones, viz. the 'Address to a
Child', and 'The Mother's Return'. In an appendix to a MS. copy of the
'Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland', by Dorothy Wordsworth,
transcribed by Mrs. Clarkson, I find the poem 'The Cottager to her
Infant' with two additional stanzas, which are there attributed to
Wordsworth. The appendix runs thus:

"To my Niece Dorothy, a sleepless Baby

THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT

(The third and fourth stanzas which follow by W. W.)

'Ah! if I were a lady gay
I should not grieve with thee to play;
Right gladly would I lie awake
Thy lively spirits to partake,
And ask no better cheer.

But, Babe! there's none to work for me.
And I must rise to industry;
Soon as the cock begins to crow
Thy mother to the fold must go