Read "A Jog-Trot Pair" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
WHO were the twain that trod this track / So many times together / Hither and back, / In spells of certain and uncertain weather?
Commonplace in conduct they / Who wandered to and fro here / Day by day: / Two that few dwellers troubled themselves to know here.
The very gravel-path was prim / That daily they would follow: / Borders trim: / Never a wayward sprout, or hump, or hollow.
Trite usages in tamest style / Had tended to their plighting. / "It's just worth while, / Perhaps," they had said. "And saves much sad good-nighting."
And petty seemed the happenings / That ministered to their joyance: / Simple things, / Onerous to satiate souls, increased their buoyance.
Who could those common people be, / Of days the plainest, barest? / They were we; / Yes; happier than the cleverest, smartest, rarest.