Page 81 - 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 ...

I'll;-: ways will be long, but the days will be long,11 quoth the river,
T o mo a long liver, long, long! ” quoth the river— the river.

1 dreamed o f the country that night, of tile orchard, the sky,
Tile voice that had mocked eon ii tig after and over and under.
But ;it last— m a clay or two namely— Eleven and I
Were very fast friends, and to him I confided the wonder.
lie said that was Echo. " Was Keho a wise kind o f bee
That had learned how to laugh; could it laugh in on.. ear and then fly.
An d la ii gl i a g; d a y o 11 de r ? 3 f “ N o ; Ec h o ''— lie wh i sj >e re d it h nv—■
Wa> a woman, they said, but a woman whom no one could sec.
And no one could find; and he did not believe it. not he;
But he could not get near for the river that held us asunder.

Vet 1 that had money— a shilling, a whole silver shilling—
W e might cross if I thought I could spend i t ” " Oh 1 yes I ” ). was
willing—
And we rail hand in hand, we ran down to the ferry, the ferryt
And we heard how she mocked at the folk with a voice clear an,
merry
When they called for the ferry; but, oh 1 she was very— was very
Swift-footed. She spoke and was gon e; and when Oliver cried,
Hit-: over! hie over! you man o f the ferry— the fe rr y !JJ
By tile still water's side she was heard far and wide— she replied,

And she m ocked in her voice sweet and merry, 41 Y ou man of the
ferry,

You man of— you man of the ferry!”

Hie o v e r ! ” be shouted. The ferry man came at his calling;
Across the clear reed-bordered liver lie ferried us ia.se.
Such a chase! Hand in hand, foot to foot, we ran on ; it surpassed
All measure her doubling— so close, then so tar away fading,
I hen gone, and no more. Ob ! to see her but once unaware,
A nd the mouth that had mocked, but we might not (yet sure she
was there) t