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Rh The daisies white and the sweet wild rose Clad mead and hedge in their summer snows. Fair Lady Kathleen wept alway: ‘Oh, misery mine for a year and a day!’

A ghostly moon in a steel cold sky, A dance of leaves by the wind swept by, Like the mirthless rushing of phantom feet. But the Lady Kathleen murmured: ‘Sweet! Love keeps a woman’s summer young.’ She sped without fear in the awe of night, Though the shuddering shadows would stay her flight With the thought of a horror unknown, Or a streamlet would laugh ’neath the hedge unshown; But Lady Kathleen wept no more: ‘Oh, joy is mine, for my trial’s o’er!’

To the white thorn-tree on the fairy rath The Lady Kathleen quick took her path, Till she stood in the midst of the elfin host. Like a lily pale or a fair white ghost. Loud the fairies laughed in their mad retreat. As she found her love with a whispered ‘Sweet! It were no sorrow to lose for you Youth’s golden days or weep long nights through.’