The Home Circle

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 41, 5 January 1895, Page 3

The Home Circle

[Conducted bt LINDA.] A FRAGMENT. One spring-tide, when the hawthorn pink its waving boughs outspread A canopy of blossom —balmy, fragrant overhead, A man and maiden stood beneath —he whisp’ring soft and low The tenderest vows of love that fear of change might never know. A gleam of triumph lit his brow as, gazing in her eyes. He read Love’s answer shining clear as day in summer skies ; JBut as the maiden breathed the words which made or marred her fate, A snow-white dove on pinion fair upsoared to Heaven’s Gate.

Came summer, and the blossom of the hawthorn tree was past; Tears trickled down the maiden’s cheek, the man spoke thick and fast—- “ My love, ’tis but a little space that bears me from the shore, We’ll meet again in summer’s prime—aye meet to part no more. Good-bye, good-bye, my [sweetheart, watch and wait for my return.” Good-bye sighed tree and flower, e’en the ripple of the burn ; The pui’ple shadows gather’d—they linger’d o’er the lea. And through the hazy distance came the murmur of the sea. The lightning blazed, the thunder roll’d, the tempest shriek’d around, With one fell crash the hawthorn lay riven on the ground. Come spring-tide or come summer, or the Waning of the year. Come gentle breeze and cooling rain, or north winds cold and drear. No more, no more, O traitor! shalt thou stand beneath its shade As black as thy false heart, and all the vows which thou hast made. But hush! the night is nigh —r- the silv’ry moon has raised her crest, •And flooded all the' valley where the maiden lies at rest. ; Edith Prince-Snowden,