THE SUNSHINE S STORY. 211
When browner shone these locks of mine
That folded glimmer gray, When life no dim December knew,
Only the merry May.
I laid it, with a solemn sigh,
Softly upon her knee, Rememb ring how my stubborn pride
Had parted him from me
How bitter pain had followed fast,
Repentance all too late For him, in time, a loveless wife j
For me, a lonely fate.
And this," she said, "was best of all,
But part of it is gone ; I rubbed her figure off the plate I could not keep it on."
A bearded mouth, a sterner face
Than used to smile on me, A stalwart figure full of grace \
Beside this I could see
The outline of a woman s dress
Along the mimic floor; A blot, large as a woman s hand,
The shoulder plainly bore.
O blotch, that came so near his heart ! What pen could better tell
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