VAGG HOLLOW

“What do you see in Vagg Hollow,

Little boy, when you go

In the morning at five on your lonely drive?”

“— I see men's souls, who follow

Till we've passed where the road lies low,

When they vanish at our creaking!

“They are like white faces speaking

Beside and behind the waggon -

One just as father's was when here.

The waggoner drinks from his flagon,

( Or he'd flinch when the Hollow is near )

But he does not give me any.

“Sometimes the faces are many;

But I walk along by the horses,

He asleep on the straw as we jog;

And I hear the loud water-courses,

And the drops from the trees in the fog,

And watch till the day is breaking.

“And the wind out by Tintinhull waking;

I hear in it father's call

As he called when I saw him dying,

And he sat by the fire last Fall,

And mother stood by sighing;

But I'm not afraid at all!”