dream
Of love and orchard boughs,
Her cheeks were flushed and twice she sighed
As she turned upon her bed
And she had no thought for the thing that cried
Or the utterance of the dead.

The Two Murderers.

"Yes, it was I that killed her
I did it with this knife,
Her that was more to me once....
Well, just the whole of my life.
Take me away and hide me,
Or kill me afore I'm mad....
It's rummy to think of me hanging
Who was such a quiet lad.

"I met her here on the tow-path,
Same as I used in May,
There wasn't no moon yet, only
The scent of the new-mown hay,
And I says--well--I thought for a moment
The happy times was near,
'The light that shineth in darkness
Is the light of your eyes, my dear.'

"Murder! a court full of lawyers....
And justice guaranteed....
And the judge will hang the prisoner
'For a cowardly cruel deed.'...
Murder!--excuse my laughing!...
It's a kind of catch in the breath....
'But there's words more harsh than a rope is
And looks more bitter than death.'

"Murder! My Lud, if ever
Their ledgers are balanced true
Which of the pair?... Oh! I reckon
That she killed something too.
... Is it the scent of a woman's hair
Or the scent of new-mown hay?...
Don't stand there shaking and staring,
For God's sake take me away."

REFLECTIONS.

The Wind and the Hills.

We will carry our ills
To a height of the hills,
Lying down, lying still
In the lap of a hill.

The wind blowing keen
Shall again make us clean,
Both body and spirit;
As it passes we shall hear it.

The time is of thunder
And fields new turned under,
Of budding and waking;
Of thorn-blossom flaking.

Of longing and questing;
Of carol and nesting;
Of white birds on the wing
Over seas blue with spring.

But you read in the pages
Of the books of the sages,
And save that dark curtain
They know nothing certain,

Except that dark portal
Which waits all things mortal--
And conqueror or prophet
Comprehend no more of it.

Yet the wind travels so
That it surely must know;
It has gone the world round
Till it came to our ground.

And the hills, which stood fast
Ere the first axe was cast
And have seen so much history,