peace. Let me in to rest, dear maidens--if maidens indeed you be,
and not six blossoms fallen from the apple-boughs."

"You cannot come in," said Joscelyn, "lest you are the bearer of a
word to our master's daughter who sits weeping in the Well-House."

"From whom should I bear her a word?" asked Martin Pippin in great
amazement.

The milkmaids cast down their eyes, and little Joan said, "It is a
secret."

Martin: I will inquire no further. But shall I not play a little on
my lute? It is as good an hour for song and dance as any other, and
I will make a tune for a sunny May evening, and you shall sway among
the grasses like any flower on the bough."

Jane: In my opinion that can hurt nobody.

Jessica: Gillian wouldn't care two pins.

Joyce: She would utter no word though we tripped it for a week.

Joscelyn: So long as he keeps to his side of the hedge--

Jennifer: --and we to ours.

"Oh, I do love to dance!" cried little Joan.

"Man!" they commanded him as one voice, "play and sing to us