Regardless of whate’er she felt,
It follow’d down the plain!
She own’d her sins, and down she knelt,
And said her pray’rs again.40
11
Then on she sped: and Hope grew strong,
The white park-gate in view;
Which pushing hard, so long it swung
That Ghost and all pass’d through.
12
Loud fell the gate against the post!45
Her heart-strings like to crack:
For, much she fear’d the grisly Ghost
Would leap upon her back.
13
Still on, pat, pat, the Goblin went,
As it had done before:—50
Her strength and resolution spent,
She fainted at the door.
14
Out came her Husband, much surpris’d:
Out came her Daughter dear:
Good-natur’d Souls! all unadvis’d55
Of what they had to fear.
15
The Candle’s gleam pierc’d through the night,
Some short space o’er the green;
And there the little trotting Sprite
Distinctly might be seen.60
16
An Ass’s Foal had lost its Dam
Within the spacious Park;
And simple as the playful Lamb,
Had follow’d in the dark.
17
No Goblin he; no imp of sin:65
No crimes had ever known.
They took the shaggy stranger in,
And rear’d him as their own.
18
His little hoofs would rattle round
Upon the Cottage floor:70
The Matron learn’d to love the sound
That frighten’d her before.
19
A favorite the Ghost became;
And, ’twas his fate to thrive:
And long he liv’d and spread his fame,75
And kept the joke alive.
20
For many a laugh went through the Vale;
And some conviction too:—
Each thought some other Goblin tale,
Perhaps, was just as true.
[2] 80
Notes
[1] [All edns add note:] This Ballad is founded on a fact. The circumstance occurred perhaps long before I was born: but is still related by my Mother, and some of the oldest inhabitants in that part of the country. R. B. BACK
[2] [1st edn, 1st state adds note:] A charming little story: excellently told: and most pleasingly and pointedly concluded. C. L. Sept. 1801.] omitted in 1st edn, 2nd state and later edns BACK