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From The Gospel Advocate and Impartial Investigator, 28th October 1828, Page 352, Auburn, New York: Editor - L.S. Everett, Publisher - U.F. Doubleday.

From "A New Year's Gift."

THE RUINED COTTAGE.

Oh there is       A deep, sweet feeling in the human heart, Which makes life beautiful amid its thorns! None will dwell in that cottage, for they say Oppression reft it from the honest man, And a curse clings to it: hence the vine Trails its green weight of leaves upon the ground; Hence weeds are in that garden: hence the hedge, Once sweet with honeysuckle, is half dead: And hence the grey moss on the apple tree.

One once dwelt there, who had been in his youth A soldier; and when many years had past, He sought his native village, and sat down To end his days in peace. He had one child— A little laughing thing, whose large dark eyes, He said, were like the mother's she had left Buried in stranger lands; and time went on In comfort and content—and that fair girl Had grown far taller than the red rose tree Her father planted her first English birth-day. And he had trained it up against an ash Till it became his pride;—it was so rich In blossom and in beauty, it was called The tree of Isabel. 'Twas an appeal To all the better feelings of the heart, To mark their quiet happiness, their home— Their garden filled with fruits, and herbs, and flowers.