THE FETCH
“What makes you so late at the trysting?
What caused you so long to be?
For a weary time I have waited
From the hour you promised me.”
“I would I were here by your side, love,
Full many an hour ago,
For a thing I passed on the roadway
All mournful and so slow.”
“And what have you passed on the roadside
That kept you so long and late?”
“It. is weary the time behind me
Since I left my father's gate.
“As I hastened on in the gloaming
By the road to you to-night,
There I saw the corpse of a young maid
All clad in a shroud of white.”
“And was she some comrade cherished.
Or was she a sister dead,
That you left thus your own beloved
Till the trysting-hour had fled?”
“Oh, I would that I could discover.
But never did see her face,
And I knew I must turn and follow
Till I came to her resting place.”
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