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THE POET'S RETURN FROM TRAVEL. 137

The young companion of our weary way
Found here the end desired of all her ills :
She who in sickness pining many a day

Hungered and thirsted for her native hills,
Forgetful now of sufferings past and pain,
Rejoiced to see her own dear home again.

Recovered now, the homesick mountaineer
Sate by the playmate of her infancy,

Her twin-like comrade, rendered doubly dear

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For that long absence: full of life was she, With voluble discourse and eager mien Telling of all the wonders she had seen.

Here silently between her parents stood
My dark-eyed Bertha, timid as a dove;
And gently oft from time to time she wooed
Pressure of hand, or word, or look of love,
With impulse shy of bashful tenderness,
Soliciting again the wished caress.

The younger twain in wonder lost were they,
My gentle Kate, and my sweet Isabel:
Long of our promised coming, day by day,

It had been their delight to hear and tell;
And now when that long-promised hour was come,
Surprise and wakening memory held them dumb.

138 THE POET'S RETURN FROM TRAVEL.

For in the infant mind, as in the old,

When to its second childhood life declines,
A dim and troubled power doth memory hold:

But soon the light of young remembrance shines Renewed, and influences of dormant love

Wakened within, with quickening influence move.

O happy season theirs, when absence brings
Small feeling of privation, none of pain,
Yet at the present object love re-springs,

As night-closed flowers at morn expand again! Nor deem our second infancy unblest

When gradually composed we sink to rest.

Soon they grew blithe as they were wont to be;

Her old endearments each began to seek :

And Isabel drew nigh to climb my knee,

And pat with fondling hand her father's cheek; With voice and touch and look reviving thus The feelings which had slept in long disuse.

But there stood one whose heart could entertain
And comprehend the fulness of the joy;
The father, teacher, playmate, was again
Come to his only and his studious boy :
And he beheld again that mother's eye,

Which with such ceaseless care had watched his infancy.

THE POET'S RETURN FROM TRAVEL. 139

Bring forth the treasures now, a proud display,—

For rich as Eastern merchants we return! Behold the black Beguine, the Sister grey,

The Friars whose heads with sober motion turn, The Ark well-filled with all its numerous hives, Noah and Shem, and Ham and Japhet, and their wives.

The Tumbler, loose of limb; the Wrestlers twain,
And many a toy beside of quaint device,
Which, when his fleecy troops no more can gain

Their pasture on the mountains, hoar with ice,
The German shepherd carves with curious knife,
Earning in easy toil the food of frugal life.

The aged friend serene with quiet smile,
Who in their pleasure finds her own delight;
The mother's heart-felt happiness the while;
The aunts, rejoicing in the joyful sight;
And he who in his gaiety of heart,

With glib and noisy tongue performed the showman's part.

ENIGMA

BY LORD BYRON.

'T WAS whispered in heaven, and muttered in hell,
And Echo caught softly the words as they fell;
In the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest,
And the depths of the ocean its presence confessed.
It was seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder;
'T will be found in the spheres when all riven asunder:
It was given to man with his earliest breath,

It assists at his birth, and attends him in death;
Presides o'er his happiness, honour, and health;
Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth;
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound;
And though unassuming, with monarchs is crowned,
In the heaps of the miser 'tis hoarded with care,
But is sure to be lost in the prodigal heir.
Without it the soldier and sailor may roam;
But woe to the wretch that expels it from home.
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e'er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned;
It softens the heart, and though deaf to the ear,
It will make it acutely and instantly hear.
But in shades let it rest, like an elegant flower;
Oh! breath on it softly it dies in an hour!

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