Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/305

 ADIEU TO FRANCE.

��ADIEU to sunny France ! I call it so, Because my betters have. Yet for my part

I have been all but perished in her clime, Frost-stricken to the bone, and to the heart ;

The Seine in one night turned to ice ! I own

I d not expected this, short of the Arctic zone.

Wood l&amp;gt;y the pound ! T was an astonishment, Next to the shock of water sold by measure,

Each tiny stem and stalk so strictly weighed, Each little grape-vine faggot such a treasure !

Oh ! for the coal of England, glowing bright,

Or even my slighted friend, the homelier anthracite.

I came in Autumn, when the vines had shrunk From prop and trellis ; yet the verdant trees

Danced to the gale that swept the Elysian fields, And rose and pansy dared the chilling breeze ;

I leave in Winter, and so cannot say,

How her beau del may smile neath happier sea sons sway.

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