The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-01-15
THE VILLAGE GIRL.

Translated from the Swedish of Runseergl
The sun vent down and evening came, the
A mass of glowing purple lay between the
farms and heaven;
A weary troop OF men went by, their days
Tired and contented, toward their homes they
wendell one by one
Their work was done, their harvest reaped,
A weii.appointed band OF foes all slain or cap
At dawn against this armed band they had
And all had closed in victory before the fall of
night.
Close by the field, where all day long the hard
hot strife was raging,
cottage by the wayside stood, half desolate
And on it's worn, low steps there sat silent
And watched the troop come slowly by, in
weary line confused.
She looked like one who sought friend, she
scanned each man S face nearly,
High burned the color in her cheek, too high
She sat so quiet, looked so warm, SO flushed
1t seemed she listened as she gazed and felt
her own heart beat.
But as she saw the troop march by, and dark
ness round them stealing,
To every file, to every man, her anxious eye
appealing,
II
More Silent than sigh itself, too anguished to
beSeech.
But when the men had all gone past, and not
word was spoken.
The poor girls courage failed at last, and all
her strength was broken.
She wept not loud, but on her hand her weary
And large tears followed one by one as from
burning well.
.svybv dast thou veens For hona may break
just where the gloom is deepest,
o daughter, hear thy mothers voice, a need
He whom thy eyes were seeking for, whose
face thou couldst not see,
He is not dead, he thought of love, and still he
lives for thee.
He thought of love; counseled HIM to shield
himself from danger,
I taught him how to slip the fight, and leave
them like stranger;
BY force they made him march with them, but
weep not, rave not thus,
know he will not choose to die from happy
life and u.s."
Shfvering, the maiden rose like one whom
awful dreams awaken,
AS if some grim foreboding all her soul in her
had shaken;
She fingered not. she sought the place where
And stole away and swiftly fed and vanished
out of sight.
An hour went by another hour the night mad
closed around he;
The moon shot clOundS were SILVER Wn1te, Dut
darkness hung below them.
.'She fingers long; o daughter, come, thy toll
is a1lln voin,
Tomorrow, ere the dawn is red, thy bride
groom's here againT
The daughter came: with silent step she came
to meet her mother,
The pallid eyelids strained no more with tears
she filin would smother;
But colder than the wind at night the hand
that mother pressed,
And whittier than Winter cloud the maiden s
cheek and breast.
snake me grave, o mother dear; my days
ON earth are over!
The only man that fled to-day, that coward
was my lover;
He Thought of me and Of himself, the battle
he scanned,
And then betrayed his brothers hope and
shamed his fathers land
When past our door the troop marched by,
and their ranks numbered,
j wept to think that like a man among the
dead he slumbersd.
sorrowed, bat my grief was mild, it had no
bitter weight,
would have lived q Thousand years TO mourn
his noble fate.
dead are lying,
But none of all the stricken bear his features,
calm in dying;
Now will live no more on earth in shame 70
sit and sigh.
He lies nowhere among the dead. and, there
fore, / will die"
The Cornhiu Magazine.