Page:Poems by Christina Rossetti with illustrations by Florence Harrison.djvu/63

 Of not-returning time:

Would talk about the haunted glen,

The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men.

Their fruits like honey to the throat

But poison in the blood;

(Men sell not such in any town:)

Would tell them how her sister stood

In deadly peril to do her good,

And win the fiery antidote:

Then joining hands to little hands

Would bid them cling together,

"For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray,

To lift one if one totters down,

To strengthen whilst one stands."