Mrs. Wicket, in the kitchen, watched them from her window, in the
clear, fading light. "How good he is," she thought. And she turned,
with a smile and a sigh, to set the table for Juliet's supper.
Juliet was singing along the roadside. "A tisket," she sang, "a
tasket, a green and yellow basket . . ." And she chanted, to a tune of
her own, an old verse she had once heard Mr. Jeminy singing:
When I was a young man,
I said, bright and bold,
I would be a great one,
When I was old.
When I was a young man,
But that was long ago,
I sang the merry old songs
All men know.
When I was a young man,
When I was young and smart,
I think I broke a mirror,
Or a girl's heart.
Mr. Jeminy walked in the middle of the road, under the dying sky,
already lighted by the young moon, in the west. As he walked, the
fresh air of evening, blowing on his face, with its sweet odors, the
twilight notes of birds among the leaves, the faint acclaim of bells,
and Juliet's childish singing, filled his heart with unaccustomed
peace, moved him with gentle and deliberate joy.
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