Goblin Market
23
Of not-returning time:
Would talk about the haunted glen,
The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men.
Their fruits like honey to the throat
But poison in the blood;
(Men sell not such in any town:)
Would tell them how her sister stood
In deadly peril to do her good,
And win the fiery antidote:
Then joining hands to little hands
Would bid them cling together,
"For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands."
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikisource/en/thumb/8/86/Poems_by_Christina_Rossetti_with_illustrations_by_Florence_Harrison_-_page_023.png/220px-Poems_by_Christina_Rossetti_with_illustrations_by_Florence_Harrison_-_page_023.png)