Page:The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter.djvu/76

“And did it go up by the town path,
Did it go down by the lake?
I know there are but the two churchyards
”Where a corpse its rest may take.“

“They did not go up by the town path,
Nor stopped by the lake their feet,
They buried the corpse all silently
Where the four cross-roads do meet.”

“And was it so strange a sight, then,
That you should go like a child,
Thus to leave me wait all forgotten—
By a passing sight beguiled?”

“'Twas my name that I heard them whisper,
Each mourner that passed by me;
And I had to follow their footsteps,
Though their faces I could not see.”

“And right well I should like to know, now,
Who might be this fair young maid,
So come with me, my own true love,
If you be not afraid.”

He did not go down by the lakeside,
He did not go by the town,
But carried her to the four cross-roads,
And he there did set her down.

“Now, I see no track of a foot here,
I see no mark of a spade.
And I know right well in this white road
That never a grave was made.”

And he took her hand in his right hand
And led her to town away.
And there he questioned the good old priest.
Did he bury a maid that day.