TWO LOVERS.

Here loving hands have gently laid

The neighbors' children, girl and boy, And man and wife; head close to head They sleep, and know nor pain nor joy.

175

JOHN W. CHADWICK.

T

TWO LOVERS.

WO lovers by a moss-grown spring: They leaned soft cheeks together there, Mingled the dark and sunny hair,

And heard the wooing thrushes sing.

O budding time!

O love's blest prime!

Two wedded from the portal stept:
The bells made happy carollings,
The air was soft as fanning wings,
White petals on the pathway slept.
O pure-eyed bride!
O tender pride!

Two faces o'er a cradle bent:

Two hands above the head were locked; These pressed each other while they rocked,

Those watched a life that love had sent.

O solemn hour!

O hidden power!

Two parents by the evening fire:
The red light fell about their knees
On heads that rose by slow degrees
Like buds upon the lily spire.

O patient life!

O tender strife!

The two still sat together there,

The red light shone about their knees;
But all the heads by slow degrees

Had gone and left that lonely pair.

O voyage fast!

O vanished past!

The red light shone upon the floor

And made the space between them wide;
They drew their chairs up side by side,

Their pale cheeks joined, and said, "Once more! "

O memories!

O past that is!

GEORGE ELIOT.

IN TWOS.

OMEWHERE in the world there hide

SOME

Garden-gates that no one sees

Save they come in happy twos,
Not in ones, nor yet in threes.

But from every maiden's door
Leads a pathway straight and true;
Maps and surveys know it not;
He who finds, finds room for two!

IN TWOS.

Then they see the garden-gates!
Never skies so blue as theirs,
Never flowers so many-sweet
As for those who come in pairs.

Round and round the alleys wind:
Now a cradle bars their way,
Now a little mound, behind,
So the two go through the day.

When no nook in all the lanes
But has heard a song or sigh,
Lo! another garden-gate
Opens as the two go by!

In they wander, knowing not:
"Five and Twenty!" fills the air
With a silvery echo low,

All about the startled pair.

Happier yet these garden-walks;
Closer, heart to heart, they lean;
Stiller, softer falls the light;
Few the twos, and far between.

Till, at last, as on they pass

Down the paths so well they know

Once again at hidden gates

Stand the two: they enter slow.

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