Ballads | Page 4

you been? and what have you there?"?"To the pasture for buttercups wet with dew."?"My patience! I think you are out of your wits;?I wonder what good will buttercups do?
"There's pennyroyal you might have got,-?It might have been useful to you or me,?But I never heard, in all my life,?Of buttercup cordial or buttercup tea.
"I want you to stay and mind the bread,?I've just put two loaves in the oven to bake;?When they are clone take them carefully out,?And put in their place this loaf of cake,
"While I run over to Widow Brown's;?Her son, from the mines, has just got back.?I don't believe he's a cent in his purse,?Young men are so shiftless now, alack!
"It was very different when I was young;?Young men were prudent, and girls were wise;?You wouldn't catch them gadding about?Like so many idle butterflies."
So bustled and scolded the worthy dame,?Until she had passed the outer sill,?To do her justice, it seldom chanced?That her hands were idle, or tongue was still.
So Phoebe gathered her knitting up,?And sat her down in the chimney niche;?But her mind was on other thoughts intent,?And here and there she dropped a stitch.
The yellow kitten purred on the hearth,?While the kitchen clock, with its frame of oak,?In the corner stood, like a sentinel,?And challenged time with its measured stroke.
But Phoebe's mind was on none of these:?The bread in the oven, her good aunt's frown,?And the scene before her faded away,?And blended with thoughts of Reuben Brown:
How they walked together on summer days,?Or bravely faced the winter's chill,?And chatted merrily all the way?To the little school-house on Sligo Hill.
How both grew older, and school-days passed,?When he was a youth, and a maiden she;?How often she went with Reuben Brown?To the rustic dance or the social bee.
The warm flush deepened on Phoebe's cheek,?And she breathed a low, half-conscious sigh;?Ah, well-a-day! they were happy times,?But he has forgotten, and so must I."
So Phoebe gathered her knitting up,?Which, while she was thinking, had fallen down,?When her quick ear caught a strange footfall,?And there in the doorway stood Reuben Brown,
With the same frank, handsome face she knew,?A smile as bright, and an eye as black--?"Phoebe," he said, "I have wandered far;?Are you glad to see your playmate back?"
The kitten still purred on the kitchen hearth,?And the ancient clock, with its frame of oak,?In the corner stood, like a sentinel,?And challenged time with its measured stroke.
A pleased light shone in the maiden's eyes;?Ah, love, young love, it is very sweet!?Reuben had gone, but she sat quite still,?And the knitting lay untouched at her feet.
Just then the dame came bustling in,?And went to the oven without ado.?"Why, Phoebe, child, what have you done??The bread is baked as black as my shoe!"
And Phoebe started, and blushed for shame,?Took up her knitting and dropped it down;?And when her aunt said, "What ails you, child?"?She hastily answered, "Reuben Brown."
Ah, love! young love! it is very sweet,?In field, or hamlet, or crowded mart;?But it burns with the brightest, purest flame?In the hidden depths of a young maid's heart.
THE LOST HEART.
One golden summer day,?Along the forest-way,?Young Colin passed with blithesome steps alert.
His locks with careless grace?Rimmed round his handsome face?And drifted outward on the airy surge.
So blithe of heart was he,?He hummed a melody,?And all the birds were hushed to hear him sing.
Across his shoulders flung?His bow and baldric hung:?So, in true huntsman's guise, he threads the wood.
The sun mounts up the sky,?The air moves sluggishly,?And reeks with summer heat in every pore.
His limbs begin to tire,?Slumbers his youthful fire;?He sinks upon a violet-bed to rest.
The soft winds go and come?With low and drowsy hum,?And ope for him the ivory gate of dreams.
Beneath the forest-shade?There trips a woodland maid,?And marks with startled eye the sleeping youth.
At first she thought to fly,?Then, timid, drawing nigh,?She gazed in wonder on his fair young face.
When swiftly stooping down?Upon his locks so brown?She lightly pressed her lips, and blushing fled.
When Colin woke from sleep,?From slumbers calm and deep,?He felt- he knew not how- his heart had flown.
And so, with anxious care,?He wandered here and there,?But could not find his lost heart anywhere.
Then he, with air distraught,?And brow of anxious thought,?Went out into the world beyond the wood.
Of each that passed him by,?He queried anxiously,?"I prithee, hast thou seen a heart astray?"
Some stared and hurried on,?While others said in scorn.?Your heart has gone in search of your lost wits"
The day is wearing fast,?Young Colin comes at last?To where a cottage stood embowered in trees.
He looks within, and there?He sees a maiden fair,?Who sings low songs the while she plies her wheel.
"I prithee, maiden bright,"--?She turns as quick as light,?And straight a warm flush crimsons all her face.
She, much abashed, looks down,?For on his locks so brown?She seems to see the marks her lips have made.
Whereby she stands confest;?What need to tell