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SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS.
THE RETURN.
"Hast thou come with the heart of thy childhood back?
The free, the pure, the kind?"
—So murmur'd the trees in my homeward track,
As they play'd to the mountain-wind.
"Hath thy soul been true to its early love?"
Whisper'd my native streams;
"Hath the spirit nursed amidst hill and grove,
Still revered its first high dreams?"
"Hast thou borne in thy bosom the holy prayer
Of the child in his parent-halls?"
—Thus breathed a voice on the thrilling air,
From the old ancestral walls.
