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The Water-lily.
The Water-lily has a heart of gold,
But yet she hides a secret never told;
The dragon-fly could tell it, if he would;;
The piping sand-lark too has understood!
She loves the burning sun, she loves the shadel
Her lonely mystery makes me half afraid;
When I my eager hands reach out to her,
She floats away,—a fairy voyager!
I only know, before the lily blooms,
A long time she must sleep in watery glooms;
And when she dies, she droops her lovely head
Down, down upon the river's shaded bed!
Edith M. Thomas.