Sair sair was my heart (1826)/The hero's orphant girls

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THE HERO'S ORPHANT GIRLS:

Oh Lady buy these budding flow'rs,
For I am sad and wet and weary,
I gather'd them ere break of day,
When all was lonely still and dreary;

And long I've sought to sell them here,
To purchase clothes and food and dwelling,
For Valor's wretched Orphan girls,
Poor me and my young Sister Ellen.

Oh buy my flow'rs they're fair and fresh,
As mine and morning tears could keep them.
To morrow's sun will view them dead,
And I shall scarcely live to weep them.

Yet in this sweet bud if nurs'd with care,
Soon into fulness would be swelling;
And nurtur'd by some gen'rous hand,
So would my little Sister Ellen.

No one has bought of me to day,
And night is now the Town o'er-shading,
And I like these poor drooping flow'rs,
Unnotic'd and unwept am fading.

My soul is struggling to be free,
It loaths its wretched earthly dwelling ;
My limbs refuse to bear their load,
Oh, God protect lone orphan Ellen.