Page 308 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

BROUGHT BACK,
S H E wandered alone at midnight, through alley and court and
street,
Through the heart of the wealthy city, yet starving for food to eat;
Still on, though her feet were weary, and the wintry wind blew keen,
Whilst her heart was nearly breaking at thought of the " might have
been”

Through her mind old scenes nre passing, ^o vivid and quick and clear;
Slie can see the stile where Harold first met her and called her “ dear;"
And the old, sweet country village, where she lived in the days gone by,
And where not a pang of sorrow e’er caused her a tear or sigh.

Then again does her fancy paint her a picture of thai gay scene,
When the wedding bells rang sweetly, and she was a sailor’s queen.
But the vision melts, and quickly there flits through her haunted miud
The sight of her love departing-, and leaving her sad behind.

He had gone to his duty bravely, away o’er the salt blue sea ;
“ Oh, God ! " she prayed when he left her, “ bring Harold again to me,”
But months went by and he came not, and now two years had fled;
She had lost all hope, and mourned him as one who was surely dead,

She had wed against parents’ wishes, they’d renounced her long ago,
And poverty’s strong hand forced her to take to the needle and sew;
But she who had loved the country, and thrived in its pure, fresh air.
Soon pined in the crowded city, penned up in a workroom there

Still o«i <1id she wander slowly, till, weary and well-nigh spent,
Into one of the broad recesses on "London Bridge she went,
And peering jurt over the coping, she strains her eyes Lo scan
The place beneath where swiftly the cold, blaek river ran.

W hat horrible thoughts are coming f They tell her a leap in there
Will ease her of all life’s burdens, its pain and want and c^.re.