I took-oh, was it stealing?— Every man in the court-room Graybeard and thoughtless youth— Knew, as he looked upon her, That the prisoner spake the truth. Out from their pockets came kerchiefs, Out from their eyes sprang tears, And out from the old faded wallets Treasures hoarded for years. The judge's face was a study, The strangest you ever saw, As he cleared his throat and murmured For one so learned in such matters, But no one blamed him, or wondered, And no one blamed him, or wondered, ANONYMOUS. THE FEMALE CONVICT. SHE shrank from all, and her silent mood Her eye sought the ground, as it could not brook, They were sailing over the salt sea-foam, She could not weep, and she could not pray, She called me once to her sleeping-place, And she spoke in a low, unearthly tone,- I saw the fields of the golden grain, I heard the reaper's harvest strain; There stood on the hills the green pine-tree, A long and a weary way I had come; But I stopped, methought, by mine own sweet home. I stood by the hearth, and my father sat there, But he closed the book to welcome me. He led me next where my mother lay, And together we knelt by her grave to pray, For it echoed one to my young days dear. This dream has waked feelings long, long since fled, And hopes which I deemed in my heart were dead! And give it my father, and tell him my prayer, Upon the deck a coffin lay; ... Next day They raised it up, and like a dirge |