The Widow

One widow at a grave will sobA little while, and weep, and sigh!If two should meet on such a job,They’ll have a gossip by and by.If three should come together--why,Three widows are good company!If four should meet by any chance,Four is a number very nice,To have a rubber in a trice--But five will up and have a dance!

Poor Mrs. C---- (why should I notDeclare her name!--her name was Cross)Was one of those the “common lot”Had left to weep “no common loss;”--For she had lately buried thenA man, the “very best of men,”A lingering truth, discover’d firstWhenever men “are at the worst.”To take the measure of her woe,It was some dozen inches deep--I mean in crape, and hung so low,It hid the drops she did not weep:In fact, what human life appears,It was a perfect “veil of tears.”Though ever since she lost “her propAnd stay,”--alas! he wouldn’t stay--She never had a tear to mop,Except one little angry drop,From Passion’s eye, as Moore would say;Because, when Mister Cross took flight,It looked so very like a spite--He died upon a washing-day!

Still Widow Cross went twice a week,As if “to wet a widow’s cheek,”And soothe his grave with sorrow’s gravy,--’Twas nothing but a make-believe,She might as well have hoped to grieveEnough of brine to float a navy;And yet she often seem’d to raiseA cambric kerchief to her eye--A duster ought to be the phrase,Its work was all so very dry.The springs were lock’d that ought to flow--In England or in widow-woman--As those that watch the weather know,Such “backward Springs” are not uncommon.

But why did Widow Cross take pains,To call upon the “dear remains,”--Remains that could not tell a jot,Whether she ever wept or not,Or how his relict took her losses?Oh! my black ink turns red for shame--But still the naughty world must learn,There was a little German cameTo shed a tear in “Anna’s Urn,”At the next grave to Mr. Cross’s!For there an angel’s virtues slept,“Too soon did Heaven assert its claim!”But still her painted face he kept,“Encompass’d in an angel’s frame.”

He look’d quite sad and quite deprived,His head was nothing but a hat-band;He look’d so lone, and so unwived,That soon the Widow Cross contrivedTo fall in love with even that band;And all at once the brackish juicesCame gushing out thro’ sorrow’s sluices--Tear after tear too fast to wipe,Tho’ sopp’d, and sopp’d, and sopp’d again--No leak in sorrow’s private pipe,But like a bursting on the main!Whoe’er has watch’d the window-pane--I mean to say in showery weather--Has seen two little drops of rain,Like lovers very fond and fain,At one another creeping, creeping,Till both, at last, embrace together:So far’d it with that couple’s weeping!The principle was quite as active--Tear unto tear,Kept drawing near,Their very blacks became attractive.To cut a shortish story shorter,Conceive them sitting tête à tête--Two cups,--hot muffins on a plate,--With “Anna’s Urn” to hold hot water!

The brazen vessel for a while,Had lectured in an easy song,Like Abernethy--on the bile--The scalded herb was getting strong;All seem’d as smooth as smooth could be,To have a cosey cup of tea;Alas! how often human sippersWith unexpected bitters meet,And buds, the sweetest of the sweet,Like sugar, only meet the nippers!

The Widow Cross, I should have told,Had seen three husbands to the mould;She never sought an Indian pyre,Like Hindoo wives that lose their loves,But with a proper sense of fire,Put up, instead, with “three removes:”Thus, when with any tender wordsOr tears she spoke about her loss,The dear departed, Mr. Cross,Came in for nothing but his thirds;For, as all widows love too well,She liked upon the list to dwell,And oft ripp’d up the old disasters--She might, indeed, have been supposedA great ship owner, for she prosedEternally of her Three Masters!

Thus, foolish woman! while she nursedHer mild souchong, she talk’d and reckon’dWhat had been left her by her first,And by her last, and by her second.Alas! not all her annual rentsCould then entice the little German,--Not Mr. Cross’s Three Per Cents,Or Consols, ever make him her man;He liked her cash, he liked her houses,But not that dismal bit of landShe always settled on her spouses.So taking up his hat and band,Said he “You’ll think my conduct odd--But here my hopes no more may linger;I thought you had a wedding-finger,But oh!--it is a curtain-rod!”