Year: 1867

And all the trees about the mill
Stand with aspect bare and chill.


Adown the rocks with rush and roar,
The icy waters madly pour,


While sullenly the wheels go orund
With wintry cadence in their sound.
The road is crisp with frozen snow,
Der which the farmers sledges go,
Bringing grists to the ancient mill,
An oldeu practice followed still.
But boy or man who lives to-day,
Never passes along that way,
Who does not ponder. as be draws near,
Upon the story of Elsie mere.
Here, where the wheels of the mill go round,
Was Elsie fair 10 her beauty found,
In all her wealth and all her pride,
One cold, cold day at eventide.
All Little they knew at35rayling Hail.
Where the guests mere met in splendor all.
And all was beauty and all was light.
In the glow of that bridal Christmas night;
When pouthful pulses madly thrilled
And every thought but JOY was stied;
When the holly dared from the ceiling high,
And love and mitrh filed every eye
They little knew of death so near.
That darkened the waters Of Elsie mere.
A cold. stern man was the Grayling known,
With an eye OF flint and hvart Of stone.
He felt no loving impulse draw
His fiat was fate; his word was law
The Grayling honor. the Grayling fame,
Were fixed on Elsie's future name.
And all his hopes and all his pride
Were in her choice identified.
0 Love perverse and strange Away,
Thou brook st no rival in thy sway;
Wealth may control the world, the mart,
But love alone controls the heart.
So Elsie gave her heart to one
With but his love 10 lean upon;
With manly grace possessed, and health,
A loving heart, but lacking wealth.
And when one came to ask her hand.
Backed by her fathers stern command,
She paled and wept. in woe besought.
But all her peadings were as naught;
And the blaze of that old time Christmas night
Saw her stand bride in her robes of white.
Her cheek is pale, her blazing eye
Looks wildly as the scene speeds by.
But she heeds it not; there's voice in the air
That sighs through the eafess branches bare.
She sees a face that they cannot see,
Aud her heart is full of misery.
She sees a beckoning form afar
And with her senses thrown ajar,
She rushes forth in the Christmas air
To follow the phantom Reckoning there,
Down through the valley and down thro the wood
Where the waters rave with an angry flood.
And no one knew when the heart broke bride,
Ia her radiant beauty, Elsie, died.
All CAV were they at Graylng Hall
With Joy the moments were freighted all;
And music hurried the merry dance.
Where hand met hand and glance met glance,
And wine flowed free, and lamps sh one bright,
To honor fair Elsies bridal night. =
.sNow fill to the bride - Each cup TO the brim
With the genial draft of mirth did swim.
But where was She the beauteous one?
The priced, the loved, tie SMILED upon
Why was she absent The question flew,
But none answ cred, for no one knew.
They sought her in each accustomed place.
But found of her 10 sign nor trace.
They sought her above and they sought her below,
but not vestige of her could show,
Till printed there on the snowy ground,
The mark of a slipper the seekers found
II led to the mere, and then they knew
That she to love and duty was true
And there they found her pale and chill,
With her radiant beauty round her still.
They bore her back to Grayling Hall.
Where the wreath was changed for the funeral pail
And the father bowed his stricken head
For his hope aud pride that thus had fled.
But one bemoaned, uncontrolled,
Though earthly hope had long since fled,
From the stately moarners far apart,
A wrecked and desolated heart;
For meath the gdei coffin lid
Was all his life and promise hid
And Grayling Hall no more is Known;
The weeds erpenw its corner stone.
But while the water foweth here,
Bearing the name of Elsie mere,


Twill be, in recognition inst,


tribute 10 her beauteous dust;
While every wave, with gentle tongue,
Shall bless her memory with its song.