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396 THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF |
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A LAY OF THE FAMINE
H
USH! hear you how the night wind keens around the craggy reek ? Its voice peals high above the waves that thunÂder in the creek.
"Aroon! aroon ! arouse thee, and hie thee o'er the
moor! Ten miles away there's bread, they say, to feed the
starving poor.
"God save thee, Eileen bawn astor, and guide thy
naked feet, And keep the fainting life in us till thou come back
with meat.
" God send the moon to show thee light upon the way
so drear, And mind thou well the rocky dell, and heed the rushy
mere."
She kissed her father's palsied hand, her mother's
pallid cheek, And whirled out on the driving storm beyond the
craggy reek.
All night she tracks, with bleeding feet, the rugged
mountain way, And townsfolks meet her in the street at flushing of the
day.
But God is kinder on the moor than man is in the
town, And Eileen quails before the stranger's harsh rebuke
and frown. |
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