Page:The poems of George Eliot (Crowell, 1884).djvu/425

 BROTHER AND SISTER.

I.

CANNOT choose but think upon the time

When our two lives grew like two buds that kiss

At lightest thrill from the bee's swinging chime,

Because the one so near the other is.

He was the elder and a little man

Of forty inches, bound to show no dread,

And I the girl that puppy-like now ran,

Now lagged behind my brother's larger tread.

I held him wise, and when he talked to me

Of snakes and birds, and which God loved the best,

I thought his knowledge marked the boundary

Where men grew blind, though angels knew the rest.

If he said "Hush!" I tried to hold my breath;

Wherever he said "Come!" I stepped in faith.

II.

Long years have left their writing on my brow,

But yet the freshness and the dew-fed beam

Of those young mornings are about me now,

When we two wandered toward the far-off stream

With rod and line. Our basket held a store

Baked for us only, and I thought with joy