When all at once, methought I heard
The sobbing of a child.--

I listened, and the sound again
Smote clearly on my ear:
"Can there,"--I wondering asked myself--
"Can there be sorrow here?"--

I looked within, and on the floor
Was sat a little boy,
Striving to soothe his sister's grief
By giving her a toy.

"Why weeps your sister thus?" I asked;
"What is her cause of grief?
Come tell me, little man," I said,
"Come tell me, and be brief."

Clasping his sister closer still,
He kissed her tear-stained face,
And thus, in homely Yorkshire phrase,
He told their mournful case.

------

"Mi mammy, sir, shoos liggin thear,
I' th' shut-up bed i' th' nook;
An' tho aw've tried to wakken her,
Shoo'll nawther spaik nor look.