Picking and Stealing
Now Jane was under that old mulberry-tree,
So watched and guarded near the summer-house;
I caught her pilfering from the lower boughs, -
“Dear Heaven! what purple lips! they’ll surely be
To in-door folk no doubtful history.”
Now this to ‘scape she stood with knitted brows
In pretty strife betwixt the ifs and hows, -
No spring was near, - and turning full on me,
She said, “Sweet cousin, thy advice I pray.”
“It is,” quoth I (one arm her waist enfolding,
And with the other hand her small wrists holding),
“It is, to kiss those tell-tale stains away.”
But ah! as kisses oft will do, this made
The matter worse, and both of us betrayed.
Now Jane was under that old mulberry-tree,
So watched and guarded near the summer-house;
I caught her pilfering from the lower boughs, -
“Dear Heaven! what purple lips! they’ll surely be
To in-door folk no doubtful history.”
Now this to ‘scape she stood with knitted brows
In pretty strife betwixt the ifs and hows, -
No spring was near, - and turning full on me,
She said, “Sweet cousin, thy advice I pray.”
“It is,” quoth I (one arm her waist enfolding,
And with the other hand her small wrists holding),
“It is, to kiss those tell-tale stains away.”
But ah! as kisses oft will do, this made
The matter worse, and both of us betrayed.