Not blither is the mountain roe: With many a wanton stroke Her feet disperse the powdery snow, That rises up like smoke.
The storm came on before its time; She wandered up and down; And many a hill did Lucy climb, But never reached the town.
The wretched parents, all that night, Went shouting far and wide; But there was neither sound nor sight To serve them for a guide.
At daybreak on a hill they stood That overlooked the moor; And thence they saw the bridge of wood A furlong from their door.
They wept, and, turning homeward, cried, “In heaven we all shall meet!” When in the snow the mother spied The print of Lucy’s feet.
Then downward from the steep hill’s edge They tracked the footmarks small; And through the broken hawthorn hedge, And by the long stone wall;
And then an open field they crossed; The marks were still the same; They tracked them on, nor ever lost, And to the bridge they came.
They followed from the snowy bank Those footmarks, one by one, Into the middle of the plank; And further there were none!
Yet some maintain that to this day She is a living child; That you may see sweet Lucy Gray Upon the lonesome wild.
O’er rough and smooth she trips along, And never looks behind; And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind.
1. Crossed the wild.--2. _Solitary_ child.--3. Sweetest thing.--4. _Minster_ clock.--5. Snapped a fagot-band.--6. _Plied_ his work.--7. Not blither is the mountain roe.--8. Wanton stroke.--9. _Disperse the powdery_ snow.--10. _Wretched_ parents.--11. Sound nor sight.--12. Spied the print.--13. Tracked them on.--14. Lonesome wild.--15. _Trips_ along.--16. _Solitary_ song.
The Emperor Alexander, while travelling in Western Russia, came one day to a small town of which he knew very little; so, when he found that he must change horses, he thought that he would look around and see what the town was like.
Alone, habited in a plain military coat, without any mark of his high rank, he wandered through the place until he came to the end of the road that he had been following. There he paused, not knowing which way to turn; for two paths were before him,--one to the right and one to the left.
Alexander saw a man standing at the door of a house; and, going up to him, the Emperor said, “My friend, can you tell me which of these two roads I must take to get to Kalouga?” The man, who was in full military dress, was smoking a pipe with an air of dignity almost ridiculous. Astonished that so plain-looking a traveller should dare to speak to him with familiarity, the smoker answered shortly, “To the right.”