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 | An idyl of work |  |
Sisters in love as well as law, the two,
Mercy and Minta, homely labors shared,
And simple joys, and cheerfulness of health.
And pleasant was the long ride home from school
Over the windings of the Tamworth hills,
After each week of absence, when they came,
Clement and Mercy, with two sunburnt boys,—
Cupids in bronze, till winter showed fair brows
And rosy apple-cheeks by fireside light,
Like Raphael's cherubs,—when the happy four
Came in the old farm-wagon, the white horse
Jogging on slowly for the landscape's sake,
Or the good company he bore, and took
Minta's gay presence back with them, to bloom
Into their Sabbath-Siloam of peace.
The schoolhouse door was closed now, and the girls
Drove the white Wizard anywhere they would,
The faithful beast by Esther named, because
He bore them always through enchanted ground;
So seemed the mountains to her fancy, bred
Beside the gray-blue level of the sea,
And grassy borders of the Merrimack.
Mercy and Minta, homely labors shared,
And simple joys, and cheerfulness of health.
And pleasant was the long ride home from school
Over the windings of the Tamworth hills,
After each week of absence, when they came,
Clement and Mercy, with two sunburnt boys,—
Cupids in bronze, till winter showed fair brows
And rosy apple-cheeks by fireside light,
Like Raphael's cherubs,—when the happy four
Came in the old farm-wagon, the white horse
Jogging on slowly for the landscape's sake,
Or the good company he bore, and took
Minta's gay presence back with them, to bloom
Into their Sabbath-Siloam of peace.
104
Drove the white Wizard anywhere they would,
The faithful beast by Esther named, because
He bore them always through enchanted ground;
So seemed the mountains to her fancy, bred
Beside the gray-blue level of the sea,
And grassy borders of the Merrimack.
| An idyl of work | |