Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,

Their heaped-up basket teazed me like a jeer; Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky, Their mother's home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
A stronger hand than hers helped it along ;
A voice talked with her through the shadows cool
More sweet to me than song.

Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
Than apples with their green leaves piled above?
I counted rosiest apples on the earth
Of far less worth than love.

So once it was with me you stooped to talk
Laughing and listening in this very lane;
To think that by this way we used to walk
We shall not walk again!

I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twos
And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,
And hastened but I loitered, while the dews

Fell fast I loitered still

TWO

SONG. Y

'WO doves upon the selfsame branch,
Two lilies on a single stem.

Two butterflies upon one flower :—
Oh happy they who look on them.

Who look upon them hand in hand
Flushed in the rosy summer light :
Who look upon them hand in hand
And never give a thought to night.

OUT.

MAUDE CLARE.

UT of the church she followed ther With a lofty step and mien : His bride was like a village maid, Maude Clare was like a queen.

"Son Thomas," his lady mother said.
With smiles, almost with tears:
May Nell and you but live as true
As we have done for years;

"Your father thirty years ago
Had just your tale to tell;
But he was not so pale as you,
Nor I so pale as Nell."

L

My lord was pale with inward strife,
And Nell was pale with pride;
My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare
Or ever he kissed the bride.

"Lo, I have brought my gift, my lord,
Have brought my gift," she said:
"To bless the hearth, to bless the board.
To bless the marriage-bed.

66

Here's my half of the golden chain

You wore about your neck,

That day we waded ankle-deep
For lilies in the beck:

66

Here's my half of the faded leaves

We plucked from budding bough, With feet amongst the lily leaves,— The lilies are budding now."

He strove to match her scorn with scorn,

66

He faltered in his place:

'Lady,” he said,—“ Maude Clare," he said,—

"Maude Clare : "—and hid his face.

She turn'd to Nell: "My Lady Nell,

I have a gift for you;

Though, were it fruit, the bloom were gone,
Or, were it flowers, the dew.

"Take my share of a fickle heart,

Mine of a paltry love :
Take it or leave it as you will,

I wash my hands thereof."

"And what you leave," said Nell, “I'll take,
And what you spurn, I'll wear;
For he's my lord for better and worse,
And him I love, Maude Clare.

"Yea, though you're taller by the head,
More wise, and much more fair;

I'll love him till he loves me best,
Me best of all, Maude Clare."

ECHO.

COME to me in the silence of the night;

Come in the speaking silence of a dream; Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright As sunlight on a stream;

Come back in tears,

O memory, hope, love of finished years.

O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet, Whose wakening should have been in Paradise, Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet; Where thirsting longing eyes

Watch the slow door

That opening, letting in, lets out no more.

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,

As long ago, my love, how long ago.

ANOTHER SPRING.

IF I might see another Spring

I'd not plant summer flowers and wait : I'd have my crocuses at once

My leafless pink mezereons,

My chill-veined snow-drops, choicer yet My white or azure violet, Leaf-nested primrose; anything

To blow at once, not late.

If I might see another Spring

I'd listen to the daylight birds
That build their nests and pair and sing,
Nor wait for mateless nightingale;

I'd listen to the lusty herds,

The ewes with lambs as white as snow,

I'd find out music in the hail

And all the winds that blow.