"There sits the Vicar and his Dame; And there my good friend, Stephen.Otter; And, ere the light of evening fail, To them I must relate the Tale Of Peter Bell the Potter." Off flew the Boat, away she flees, Spurning her freight with indignation! On two poor legs, toward my stone table 66 "O, here he is!" cried little Bess, "Reproach me not, - your fears be still, Be thankful we again have met; Resume, my Friends! within the shade I spake with faltering voice, like one PART FIRST. ALL by the moonlight river-side Groaned the poor Beast,- alas! in vain ; "Hold!" cried the Squire, "against the rules Who Peter was, let that be told, “A Potter,* Sir, he was by trade," "He two-and-thirty years or more "And he had seen Caernarvon's towers, In the dialect of the North, a hawker of earthen-ware is thus designated. And he had been where Lincoln bell Flings o'er the fen that ponderous knell, -A far-renowned alarum. "At Doncaster, at York, and Leeds, And all along the Lowlands fair, "And he had been at Inverness; And Peter, by the mountain rills, Had danced his round with Highland lasses; And he had lain beside his asses On lofty Cheviot Hills: "And he had trudged through Yorkshire dales, Among the rocks and winding scars; Where deep and low the hamlets lie "And all along the indented coast, "As well might Peter in the Fleet He travelled here, he travelled there; But not the value of a hair Was heart or head the better. "He roved among the vales and streams, In the green wood and hollow dell; They were his dwellings night and day, -- "In vain, through every changeful year, Did Nature lead him as before; A primrose by a river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, "Small change it made in Peter's heart "In vain, through water, earth, and air, "At noon, when by the forest's edge He lay beneath the branches high, The soft blue sky did never melt "On a fair prospect some have looked "Within the breast of Peter Bell "Of all that lead a lawless life, In city or in village small, He was the wildest of them all; He had a dozen wedded wives. "Nay, start not!— wedded wives, and twelve! But how one wife could e'er come near him, In simple truth I cannot tell; For, be it said of Peter Bell, Though Nature could not touch his heart |