A HAPPY day at Whitsuntide, 
 As soon ?s the zun begun to vall, 
We all stroll?d up the steep hill-zide 
 To Meldon, gret an? small; 
Out where the Castle wall stood high 
A-mwoldren to the zunny sky. 
 
An? there wi? Jenny took a stroll 
 Her youngest sister, Poll, so gay, 
Bezide John Hind, ah! merry soul, 
 An? mid her wedlock fay; 
An? at our zides did play an? run 
My little maid an? smaller son. 
 
Above the baten mwold upsprung 
 The driven doust, a-spreaden light, 
An? on the new-leav?d thorn, a-hung, 
 Wer wool a-quiv?ren white; 
An? corn, a-sheenen bright, did bow, 
On slopen Meldon?s zunny brow. 
 
There, down the roofless wall did glow 
 The zun upon the grassy vloor, 
An? weakly-wandren winds did blow, 
 Unhinder?d by a door; 
An? smokeless now avore the zun 
Did stan? the ivy-girded tun. 
 
My bwoy did watch the daws? bright wings 
 A-flappen vrom their ivy bow?rs; 
My wife did watch my maid?s light springs, 
 Out here an? there vor flow?rs; 
And John did zee noo tow?rs, the place 
Vor him had only Polly?s face. 
 
An? there, of all that pried about 
 The walls, I overlook?d em best, 
An? what o? that? Why, I made out 
 Noo mwore than all the rest: 
That there wer woonce the nest of zome
That wer a-gone avore we come. 
 
When woonce above the tun the smoke 
 Did wreathy blue among the trees, 
An? down below, the liven vo?k 
 Did tweil as brisk as bees:
Or zit wi? weary knees, the while 
The sky wer lightless to their tweil