Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/541
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CONTRADICTION.
523
The pair were wedded, and he with pride
Brought home in his boat his gentle bride;
But, as they were cruising along the shore,
He saw what he had not seen before;
For she, when asked by the jolly bridegroom
To sit aside a little for room,
Had scarcely moved from her place a minute,
When back again he saw her in it;
And this in so quiet and mild a way,
As if she both would, and would not obey.
The act was a trifle—might mean no harm,
But yet it gave him a little alarm.
And full soon its meaning came plain to view,
And full soon our fisher began to rue,
For ere the first month was past and gone,
The lady's voice had changed its tone,
And to everything he did or said
An opposition flat she made;
Till finding himself so greatly thwarted,
Brought home in his boat his gentle bride;
But, as they were cruising along the shore,
He saw what he had not seen before;
For she, when asked by the jolly bridegroom
To sit aside a little for room,
Had scarcely moved from her place a minute,
When back again he saw her in it;
And this in so quiet and mild a way,
As if she both would, and would not obey.
The act was a trifle—might mean no harm,
But yet it gave him a little alarm.
And full soon its meaning came plain to view,
And full soon our fisher began to rue,
For ere the first month was past and gone,
The lady's voice had changed its tone,
And to everything he did or said
An opposition flat she made;
Till finding himself so greatly thwarted,
He swore he was almost broken-hearted.
A wrangling year had passed away,
When going one morn at break of day,
To launch to the fishing, he found that his boat,
Which only last night he had left afloat,
Was cut and run, out of sight at sea,
Leaving only a stump of the rope on the quay.
Some ill-willing neighbour had done the deed—
At least this was part of our fisher's creed.
So he hastened home to tell his wife
How some rogue had cut loose his boat with a knife;
The stump of rope at the same time he rears—
"My dear," said she, "you must mean with shears;
The cut is of that kind clear and plain,"
"The knife say I," quoth the husband again.
A wrangling year had passed away,
When going one morn at break of day,
To launch to the fishing, he found that his boat,
Which only last night he had left afloat,
Was cut and run, out of sight at sea,
Leaving only a stump of the rope on the quay.
Some ill-willing neighbour had done the deed—
At least this was part of our fisher's creed.
So he hastened home to tell his wife
How some rogue had cut loose his boat with a knife;
The stump of rope at the same time he rears—
"My dear," said she, "you must mean with shears;
The cut is of that kind clear and plain,"
"The knife say I," quoth the husband again.
And to it they went on this nice little matter,
Till he swore she would kill him outright with her clatter;
And enraged at last beyond all enduring,
He would try her, he said, with a new mode of curing;
So straight to the pier he dragged her down,
And, holding her o'er by the skirts of her gown,
He dipped her into the brimming flood,
And kept her there for a minute good;
Then drawing her up, he asked her how
She thought the rope had been severed now?
Quoth she all gasping, "By shears, by shears!"—
Down again she went over head and ears.
Till he swore she would kill him outright with her clatter;
And enraged at last beyond all enduring,
He would try her, he said, with a new mode of curing;
So straight to the pier he dragged her down,
And, holding her o'er by the skirts of her gown,
He dipped her into the brimming flood,
And kept her there for a minute good;
Then drawing her up, he asked her how
She thought the rope had been severed now?
Quoth she all gasping, "By shears, by shears!"—
Down again she went over head and ears.