The title character is raking hay, nursing "a wish that she hardly dared to own, for something better than she had known" when the local judge rides by on his horse.
The title character is raking hay, nursing "a wish that she hardly dared to own, for something better than she had known" when the local judge rides by on his horse. She offers him a glass of water and they fall to pleasant conversation. She dreams that "he would dress me up in silks so fine, and praise and toast me at his wine." Much later, we learn that "she wedded a man unlearned and poor, and many children played round her door," even though she still longs for her lost opportunity. For ten points, "the saddest words of tongue or pen" are simply: "It might have been" in this John Whittier poem.
The title character is raking hay, nursing "a wish that she hardly dared to own, for something better than she had known" when the local judge rides by on his horse.
{Maud Muller}