A LITTLE HISTORY.
21
She left us when the autumn woods
Were gilt with tawny gold,
And frost-flowers white as Eastern pearls
Starred heath, and moor, and wold.
Were gilt with tawny gold,
And frost-flowers white as Eastern pearls
Starred heath, and moor, and wold.
The maples broke their blood-red hearts
Upon their native hills;
And amber sunshine, soft and calm,
Fell through the mellow stills.
Upon their native hills;
And amber sunshine, soft and calm,
Fell through the mellow stills.
But when she went the sunshine paled,—
She took the light away;
The blue sky lost its tender blue,
The day was not the day.
She took the light away;
The blue sky lost its tender blue,
The day was not the day.
The moonshine, falling down the void
In silent silver rain,
Filled all my heart with vague unrest
And thrills of tender pain.
In silent silver rain,
Filled all my heart with vague unrest
And thrills of tender pain.
She came back in the early spring,
When earth was all aglow,
And from the blooming orchard-trees
Drifted the fragrant snow;
When earth was all aglow,
And from the blooming orchard-trees
Drifted the fragrant snow;
Came back in jewels and in silks,
And velvets rich and rare,—
With laces worth their weight in gold
Looped in her shining hair.
And velvets rich and rare,—
With laces worth their weight in gold
Looped in her shining hair.
She touched my fingers when we met;
I was a bashful clown,
Who tilled her father's wide-spread lands
With sinewy hands and brown.
I was a bashful clown,
Who tilled her father's wide-spread lands
With sinewy hands and brown.
