Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/217

 THE SUNSHINE S STORY. 211

When browner shone these locks of mine

That folded glimmer gray, When life no dim December knew,

Only the merry May.

I laid it, with a solemn sigh,

Softly upon her knee, Rememb ring how my stubborn pride

Had parted him from me

How bitter pain had followed fast,

Repentance all too late For him, in time, a loveless wife j

For me, a lonely fate.

And this,&quot; she said, &quot;was best of all,

But part of it is gone ; I rubbed her figure off the plate I could not keep it on.&quot;

A bearded mouth, a sterner face

Than used to smile on me, A stalwart figure full of grace \

Beside this I could see

The outline of a woman s dress

Along the mimic floor; A blot, large as a woman s hand,

The shoulder plainly bore.

O blotch, that came so near his heart ! What pen could better tell

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