Page:Pleasant Memories.pdf/335

Come out to Hampstead. For 't is beautiful
To 'scape the city's atmosphere of smoke,
Which, like an inky curtain, wrappeth it,
And drink the breezes of this vale of health.
'T is beautiful to view the broad expanse,
County on county stretching, till at last
The fading outline, like a misty dream,
Blends with the blue horizon.
                                            Yon wide heath,
From which the prospect opens, oft hath lured
The truant spirits of the neighboring school
To leave their restless bed, and scale the walls,
Stealing a starlight ramble. Fancying oft
A vengeful usher in each prickly bush,
Whose intercepting arms their path oppose,
They snatch a trembling taste of liberty,
Dashed with the dregs of fear. Ah, happier then
Deem they the cottage child, who wakes at morn
Unvexed by thistly learning, uncondemned
To pore o'er lexicons, oft drenched in tears,