LILY LESLIE.

A BALLAD.

———

BY GRETTA.

———

Bonny Lily Leslie roved

Down among the heather.

In a clear and sunny day

Of the summer weather.

Something seemed to cloud her brow

Mingling with it gladness,

Half the look betrayed a wish,

The other half was sadness.

By the brooklet’s flashing course

Then she stopped to ponder—

Why did Lily look so sad?

Why so lonely wander!

Did she gaze within the stream

At the form reflected?

Was her fancy pleased to see

What she there detected?

Did she note her sportive curls,

Did she try to twine them,

As the saucy breeze untied

The snood that would confine them?

Did she mark her rounded cheek

Warm with youth’s bright dawning,

Soft as sunlight on the snow

In a winter’s morning?

Did she count the summer’s o’er

Since she watched them flying?

Sixteen times had known them come,

Sixteen mourned them dying.

Was she thinking how at home

In her mountain shealing,

She unseals her father’s heart,

All its love revealing?

How she nestles in his arms

When he says he’s lonely,

Tells him he must love her well

Because he has her only!

No! I’m sure that none of these

Made the lassie wander—

Then why did Lily walk alone,

Why did Lily ponder?

Why did Lily sit her down

Mute as Sorrow’s daughter,

With her little blue veined feet

Shining through the water?

Why was Lily’s voice not heard

’Mid the brooklets laughter,

Caroling like free-born bird

With echo babbling after?

Stealing softly through the shade

I heard what she was saying,

And a rare complaint indeed

The maiden was betraying.

She was sighing, “Would that God

—Ere he took my mother—

Had given me, like Mary Hill,

A darling, darling brother!

“How proud that Mary Hill appears,

When Harry comes from sea,

But I have none to wish returned,

And none to come to me.

“The old man in our little home

Might then forget my mother,

And when he died would know me safe—

Oh that I had a brother!”

“A brother! Lily,” soft I said—

As springing to her side

I caught her, like a startled fawn

Just bounding o’er the tide—

“A brother! Lily, sit thee down

And I will be thy brother;

Dost thou not know, since thine is dead,

That thou may’st choose another?”

She laid her rosy palm in mine,

The artless little fairy,

And said, “Dear Harry, may I be,

Your sister, just like Mary?

“May I watch to see you come,

May I run to meet you—

May I do the thousand things

Mary does to greet you!”

We sat us down beside the hill

Broad shadowed by the mountain,

And there we talked the matter o’er,

Beside the gurgling fountain.

And when the golden sun went down,

She promised, as I kissed her,

That she would ever, ever be

My darling, dearest SISTER!

Then a thousand plans she told—

Of course none could miscarry—

Oh! she was so happy now,

She had a brother Harry!

But my heart was beating wild

Ever since I kissed her,

And in vain it tried to say

“Love her as a SISTER!”

Softly then I bent me down—

Now the stars were shining—

And my arm around her waist

Brotherly was twining—

“Sister, there is one thing more

I’ll tell thee while we tarry;

Lily, brothers go away,

Darling, brothers marry!

“Thou wilt be alone again

For thy Harry’s going—

Sisters may not keep me here,

Though their tears be flowing.

“Lily! hast thou never heard

Of a bond more tender,

For which the heart a brother’s love

A sister’s would surrender?

“Such the spell that binds me now,

Dearest mountain flower,

And I’ve given all my soul

To its gentle power!

“Dost thou hear me, Lily, love?

Shall I longer tarry?

Darling BROTHERS go away,

Dearest BROTHERS marry!”

Lily Leslie bent her head,

Like a dew-wet blossom,

And the tears were falling fast

O’er her heaving bosom.

What she sobbed I may not tell—

What I answered to her;

I only know the night grew dark

On maiden and on wooer.

When the moon was sailing high

She knelt within the shealing;

I beside the old man’s couch

Was all the tale revealing.

Soon he laid his aged hands

Tremblingly upon us,

And I heard his fervent voice

Pray for blessings on us.

Lily laughed with merry heart

As she kissed her BROTHER,

“Husbands need not go away,

Need not love another.”

Now within her mountain home

Long we’ve lived together,

And my rovings since are all

With her, in summer weather.

And so happy have I been,

I ne’er wished another,

Nor have heard my Lily since

Pine to have a—Brother!