Thomas Hardy

The Market-Girl

Nobody took any notice of her as she stood on the causey kerb,
All eager to sell her honey and apples and bunches of garden herb;
And if she had offered to give her wares and herself with them too that day,
I doubt if a soul would have cared to take a bargain so choice away.

But chancing to trace her sunburnt grace that morning as I passed nigh,
I went and I said ‘Poor maidy dear! – and will none of the people buy?’
And so it began; and soon we knew what the end of it all must be,
And I found that though no others had bid, a prize had been won by me.