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Page:Poems Emma M. Ballard Bell.djvu/84

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78
THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR.
For time had only left its gentlest traceOn features all unmarked by shade of care;And gazing on the daughter by her side,Who sat absorbed in pensive, dreamy mood,In sweet and solemn accents she replied,"God hath to us been ever kind and good."
"List, father, some one's knocking at the door,"The maiden said, with cheek quick growing pale."It is the wind, my child, it is no more;Then wherefore doth thine eye with terror quail?"And then they silent sat, and no one spoke;And save the night-wind's and the tempest's roar,No other sound the solemn stillness broke,Until there came a knocking as before.
This time the father heard, and turned the lock;But still, for fear, he opened not the door;He only said, "Who art thou that dost knock?Tell us thy name, O stranger, if no more."Just then the cottage door flew open wide,And o'er its threshold, with a ghastly mien,A Spectre with a noiseless step did glide;But only by the maiden was he seen.
The parents knew it not; they only sawThe shadows that its dark'ning presence threw