THE MARKET GIRL.

                                                      I.

Nobody took any notice of her as she stood on the causey-
    kerb,
A-trying to sell her honey and apples, and bunches of garden
    herb;
And if she had offered to give her wares, and herself with
    them too, that day,
I doubt if a soul would have cared to take a bargain so choice
    away.

                                                      II.

But chancing to trace her sunburt grace that morning as I
    passed nigh,
I went and I said, “Poor maidy, dear! And will none o’ the
    people buy?”
And so it began; and soon we knew what the end of it all
    must be,
And I found that though no others had bid, a prize had been
    won by me.

                                                           THOMAS HARDY.