IO                      KA TYDID'S POEMS.
                  Barefooted, we would wade.
               Decorum could not cramp the brain,
               And Love unlocked his golden chain.

               We climb upon my father's barn,
                  Hide in the straw and hay;
               We watch aunt "Silvy" spinning yarn
                  In the old-fashioned way.
               She tells us tales by candle light,
               That fill our hearts with wild delight.

               A shadow falls; I lose your face;
                  Lost is the fairy-tale;
               And just before my eyes I trace
                  A kind of airy veil;
               A network that is strangely planned,
               Held by the Present's cunning hand.
               The shadow now has passed away;
                  I glance the meshes through,
               And find strange children there at play
                  Beside your knee; one, two-
               The little faces both foretell
               A happy future for you, Belle.

               Long, long I gaze. That pretty view
                  Dissolves away in air,
               And still I'm looking, Belle, for you,
                  And still I'm standing there;
               I strive your image to retrace-
               All, all has vanished but my face.

               And closing 'round me as before,
                  I see a figured wall,
                A carpet blue upon the floor,
                  And sunlight over all.
               Bewildered, yet entranced I seem,
               And 'waken from a sweet day-dream.