of Wordsworth and his poem of `Resolution and Independence'.)

I MET an aged, aged man
   Upon the lonely moor:
I knew I was a gentleman,
   And he was but a boor.
So I stopped and roughly questioned him,
   `Come, tell me how you live!'
But his words impressed my ear no more
   Than if it were a sieve.

He said, `I look for soap-bubbles,
   That lie among the wheat,
And bake them into mutton-pies,
   And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men,' he said,
   `Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread --
   A trifle, if you please.'

But I was thinking of a way
   To multiply by ten,
And always, in the answer, get
   The question back again.
I did not hear a word he said,
   But kicked that old man calm,
And said, `Come, tell me how you live!'
   And pinched him in the arm.

His accents mild took up the tale:
   He said, `I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
   I set it in a blaze.
And thence they make a stuff they call
   Rowlands' Macassar Oil;
But fourpence-halfpenny is all
   They give me for my toil.'

But I was thinking of a plan
   To paint one's gaiters green,
So much the colour of the grass
   That they could ne'er be seen.
I gave his ear a sudden box,
   And questioned him again,
And tweaked his grey and reverend locks,
   And put him into pain.

He said, `I hunt for haddocks' eyes
   Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat- buttons
   In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold,
   Or coin of silver-mine,
But for a copper-halfpenny,
   And that will purchase nine.

`I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
   Or set limed twigs for crabs;
I sometimes search the flowery knolls
   For wheels of hansom cabs.
And that's the way' (he gave a wink)
   `I get my living here,
And very gladly will I drink
   Your Honour's health in beer.'

I heard him then, for I had just
   Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
   By boiling it in wine.
I duly thanked him, ere I went,
   For all his stories queer,
But chiefly for his kind intent
   To drink my health in beer.

And now if e'er by chance I put
   My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
   Into a left-hand shoe;
Or if a statement I aver
   Of which I am not sure,
I think of that strange wanderer
   Upon the lonely moor.