known!

With bold affection, pure and true,
The lovers rose all fears above,
And Faith and Conscience fed with dew
The strong and flame-like flower of

love.

2.

Sometimes amid the glimmering meads They walked in August's genial eve, And marked above the mill-stream reeds

The myriad flies their mazes weave.

And 'twas once more the autumnal heaven

That saw the Fountain Spirit rise.

15.

"Again the youth his fay besought A mortal's lot with him to share, For converse all of airy thought Contents but souls ensphered in air ; 16.

"And man will ask below the skies That breast may lean to beating breast, That mingling hands and answering

eyes

May halve the toil and glad the rest.

17.

"I too,' she said, and saying darkened, Must speak to thee of certain doom, To thee for whom my deeps have hearkened,

And oft have felt unwonted gloom. 18.

"For thee my heart, so calmly blest, Has throbbed with keener hopes and joys;

My waves have sparkled unrepressed, And breathed for thee more vocal noise.

19. "Too fond has been our mutual love To last beneath yon clouded sun; And fate, that sternly sits above, Decrees our bliss already done. 20.

"At morn or eve thou must no more Return for commune sweet with me; My gaze on mortal eyes is o'er, Because it may not feed on thee.

21. "Thou must in other pathways roam, But sometimes think that once we met; I seek my lonely cavern home, There still to live, but not forget.'

22.

"The tinkling words were hardly said, When sank the fountain's mournful

daughter;

The youth, to grasp the form that fled, Sprang shrieking down the fatal water. 23.

66 Dear Jane, 'tis but a graceful story,

To soothe and not oppress the mind;
But now the year is turning hoary,
I hear it moaned by every wind.

24. "And in the autumn's look I trace, I know not why, a threatening stare, Nor e'en thy dear and rosy face Can disenchant the spell-bound air.

25.

"Yet well I know 'tis empty dream, And vainer still the legend's voice,

But when the waste has reached an end

The gains of thrift are coming in.

39.

"And ever I have seen that they Who least had cause to fear the morrow, Have cheeriest walked the open way, Nor hung their heads in sorrow.

40.

"Who does not feel how hard the thought

For one whose life must soon be o'er, That all his days have added nought, But still made less man's little store? 41.

"And therefore, Jane, I think it right That you should choose a gainful man, One working hard from morn till night, Gathering and hoarding all he can.

42.

"Yet, mind you well, I do not say But Henry may your husband be; Though much I doubt if learning's pay Will keep a house from leanness free. 43.

"His health, by study much abused, Seems now, if well I mark, to pine; And then he has been always used To nurture delicate and fine. 44.

"His mother's stipend ceased with her,
And he, I know, must needs be poor;
And so methinks it better were
That you and he should love no more.
45.

"But stay till winter days be past,
And when the spring returns again,
If still I find your liking last,
Why then-nay, come and kiss me,
Jane."

46.

Thus wandered round his maze of speech

The long-experienced man;
Determined both the twain to teach,
Through all his saws he ran.
47.

With eyes upon the table bent,
The maiden stooped her glowing face;
But Henry gazed with look intent,
The father's inmost thought to trace.

48.

And when of sinking health he spoke, The lover's brow was flushed with red, While Jane turned white beneath the stroke,

With anguish more than dread.

49.

But when the closing promise came, They both were comforted and cheered;

spend,

The wise man takes a day to win ;

blame,

The old man's eye no more they feared.