Page:My Friend Annabel Lee (1903).pdf/166

 beheld her family—Lilith and the rest—struggling and half-covered with water, and their home made of reeds was loosed from its foundations and borne down the river.

"Presently the flood overtook themselves and the life of Delilah was merged in water. She was borne high on a dark swell, and at the turning was suddenly struck a stunning blow upon the gray of her breast by a square black wooden tablet.

"Before death came to her out of the brilliancies she was conscious of several things. She saw before her eyes for an instant with startling plainness the words on the tablet, 'Gone in the hey-day of youth to his last rest. But his virtues are with us still.'

"She even fancied for the first time that she knew what it meant.

The hey-day of youth,' she murmured