With feeble hands upon our sad-bowed heads,
And in a voice all tremulous with tears,
She said to us: 'Dear children, love each other--
Bear and forbear, and come to me in heaven;'
And praying for us daily--drooped and died.
[Illustration: "'DEAR CHILDREN? LOVE EACH OTHER,--BEAR AND FORBEAR, AND
COME TO ME IN HEAVEN'"]
"After the sad and solemn funeral,
Alone and weeping and disconsolate,
I sat at evening by the cottage door.
I felt as if a dark and bitter fate
Had fallen on me in my tender years.
I seemed an aimless wanderer doomed to grope
In vain among the darkling years and die.
One only star shone through the shadowy mists.
The moon that wandered in the gloomy heavens
Was robed in shrouds; the rugged, looming hills
Looked desolate;--the silent river seemed
A somber chasm, while my own pet lamb,
Mourning disconsolate among the trees,
As if he followed some dim phantom-form,
Bleated in vain and would not heed my call.
On weary hands I bent my weary head;
In gloomy sadness fell my silent tears.
"An angel's hand was laid upon my head--
There in the moonlight stood my own Pauline--
Angel of love and hope and holy faith--
She flashed upon me bowed in bitter grief,
As falls the meteor down the night-clad heavens--
In silence.
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