Ruined and ill-a man of two score;

Pretty and guileless-a girl of three.

Not a boy-but still better than nothing:

To soothe one-s feeling-from time to time a kiss!

There came a day-they suddenly took her from me;

Her soul-s shadow wandered I know not where.

And when I remember how just at the time she died

She lisped strange sounds, beginning to learn to talk,

Then I know that the ties of flesh and blood

Only bind us to a load of grief and sorrow.



At last, by thinking of the time before she was born,

By thought and reason I drove the pain away.

Since my heart forgot her, many days have passed

And three times winter has changed to spring.

This morning, for a little, the old grief came back,

Because, in the road, I met her foster-nurse