The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-19
Mrs. Hemans would have pointed the
moral in this way:
Tennyson would have sighed as he san

Tennyson would have sighed as he sang:
Rich sunshine fills the vale and hills,
Two tender children, girl and brother,
Start out to bring from the high spring
A cup of water to their mother
''I1ie, children heW we hear her faint
voice crying.
Eyes, mother. yes the children answer,
Hieing, hieing, hleing.
o fate! o death! They feel thy BREATH
For as they climb the rocky slope
The brother slips the sister trips,
And shattered is the mothers hope.
Come, children. come" we hear her sad
voice crying,
Come, children, come" the echo an
Dying, dying, dying.
And poor Robert Burns, with a heart
full of sorrow would have said with
touching tenderness:
We birds that sing sac merrily.
And bithely bid me sweet good morrow.
Wi We nae breathe some sadder note?E
oh ken we not some sang o sorrow?
'Twi' break my heart unless thoult cease
To MARBLE thus thy mrth and gladness,
For my twa cen are flu O. tears,
And l. my heart is muckle sadness.
OFT gaze on the quiet hill,
And see my BARNS, my lass, my daush-
And her fair brother. gaze to bring
From yonder spring cup of water.
o birds, wi We nae mourn wi me,
Ger these my bonnie girl and brother?
WI we nae bring me flowers and leaves,
And help these hands their graves to
cover?
Wordsworth would have been pleased
with the simplicity of this story, though it
would have troubled him to have ended it
so tragically. Doubtless he would have
said something like this:
He dwelt within a lowly cot,
Beside a towering hill;
A boy who shared his simple lot
With his loved sister Jill.
One day they wandered forth full gay,
To find a mountain rill,
AT eventide they made their grave
By this unfriendly hill.
Longfellow would have made kind Of
melodrama, something on this order;
And the setting sun descending
Threw it's light upon the mountain.
Up this slope went boy and maiden,
Travelling toward a pool of water,
oh. the hard and treacherous hillside!
Fatal twas to many brave one,
Fatal, too unto our hero;
Nedtn ms rect a IfemDilDR boulder
Moved a little toward the valley;
To the valley fell our hero.
Quick the maiden's heart was beating,
And without aimoments pausing
Thus aloud she spake, declaring
81 will go where or thou goest."
Then from off the selfsame bowlder
Down the maiden cast her body.
Thus departed girl and lover;
In their death they're not divided.
Ia
dear VIII Shakspere would have fallen
into a reverie:
Was it Jack or was it Jill? That is the
Could it be Jill who pushed her brother
And caused that pail of water to be spilled
And that poor skull to crack in such a
way
And work such inconvenience? oh, yes,
No other. She only thought that she
would end
Those ills which at that instant did CON
And stir her spirit-'twas a consumma-
ton
Devoutly to be wished To give one push!
To pushi Perchance to fall herself! Ay
there's the rub.
But In that deed she saw no cause of fear
Which to an act so treacherOus and un-
wise.
Should give pause.
Poe would never have taken this acct
dent to Jack and Jill so much to heart
hut in a half reckless mood he would have
written:
once upon morning merry, Jack and
Jill felt quite contrary,
As they wandered forth together to
fetch water from the hill.
AS they sauntered acting badly, Jack be-
gan to speak most madly,
And his temper was most sadly pat
termed after sister jill.
For his teasing she chastised him. gave
push and lost her balance
And both tumbled down the hill.
Buffalo n. y. 1899. c. n
UsEDDT~