Poems By the Way Part 35

But when anigh to the town they come, Lo there is the wain a-wending home,

And many a man and maid beside, Who tossed the sickles up, and cried:

"O Goldilocks, now whither away?

And what wilt thou with the woodland may?"

"O this is Goldilocks my bride, And we come adown from the wild-wood side,

And unto the Fathers' House we wend To dwell therein till life shall end."

"Up then on the wain, that ye may see From afar how thy mother bideth thee.

That ye may see how kith and kin Abide thee, bridal brave to win."

So Goldilocks and Goldilocks Sit high aloft on the wheaten shocks,

And fair maids sing before the wain, For all of Goldilocks are fain.

But when they came to the Fathers' door, There stood his mother old and h.o.a.r.

Yet was her hair with grey but blent, When forth from the Upland Town he went.

There by the door his sisters stood; Full fair they were and fresh of blood;

Little they were when he went away; Now each is meet for a young man's may.

"O tell me, Goldilocks, my son, What are the deeds that thou hast done?"

"I have wooed me a wife in the forest wild, And home I bring the Woodland Child."

"A little deed to do, O son, So long a while as thou wert gone."

"O mother, yet is the summer here Now I bring aback my true-love dear.

And therewith an Evil Thing have I slain; Yet I come with the first-come harvest-wain."

"O Goldilocks, my son, my son!

How good is the deed that thou hast done?

But how long the time that is worn away!

Lo! white is my hair that was but grey.

And lo these sisters here, thine own, How tall, how meet for men-folk grown!

Come, see thy kin in the feasting-hall, And tell me if thou knowest them all!

O son, O son, we are blithe and fain; But the autumn drought, and the winter rain,

The frost and the snow, and St. David's wind, All these that were, time out of mind,

All these a many times have been Since thou the Upland Town hast seen."

Then never a word spake Goldilocks Till they came adown from the wheaten shocks.

And there beside his love he stood And he saw her body sweet and good.

Then round her love his arms he cast: "The years are as a tale gone past.

But many the years that yet shall be Of the merry tale of thee and me.

Come, love, and look on the Fathers' Hall, And the folk of the kindred one and all!

For now the Fathers' House is kind, And all the ill is left behind.

And Goldilocks and Goldilocks Shall dwell in the land of the Wheaten Shocks."