Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/258

 252 HERE AND THERE.

Jest before she came to sunrise Now, it seems, as I can see

Mother lookin out o giory, Smilin softly down at me !

��HERE AND THERE.

��1 EE ! the birds are here !&quot; &quot;Ah ! the birds have

gone!&quot; One cry o er another slips, Till adown in the tangled beaten grass The foot of the summer trips.

All the rosy wreaths of the May-buds lie

Under brown September sheaves, While across the top of the empty nest

Arachne her kerchief weaves.

��(

��The birds have come !&quot; Did they ever sing, Little Ruth, so sweet before ? Listen long and well, for the song to-day Is a song without encore.

The birds will come with another spring,

And the May-bush blossoms show ; But the sweetest song they can sing but once

But once can the same rose blow.

&quot;Ah! the birds have gone!&quot; Nay, the maid be trothed Cares not for the empty nest ;

�� �