Daisy opened her eyes. The snow and wind were gone, and April's sunny breath blew shadows through the open window. The house, the death, the storm--how were they connected with the string of pearls? And Daisy held the necklace on her finger-tips and wondered. "Somewhere, somewhere--but where?" Daisy could not tell where. "I may have seen one like it," Daisy thought. "Perhaps this was Bell's, and these stones may have rested many a time on her little neck. I wish I had known Bell!" With this she placed the necklace in the case again, and tears gathered in her eyes, she knew not why. "Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean." She laid the box in the place where she had found it, and thought she would not speak to Mortimer of the necklace; he might be displeased to have her touch it. Her gaiety had given place to sadness, and when she knelt by Mortimer's chair she could not help sobbing. Mortimer awoke and bent over her. "What, weeping, Daisy?" X. _Full knee-deep lies the winter snow, And the winter winds are wearily sighing: Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow, And tread softly and speak low, For the old year lies a-dying. Old year, you must not die: You came to us so readily, You lived with us so steadily, Old year you must not die. He lieth still: he doth not move: He will not see the dawn of day, He hath no other life above. He gave me a friend and a true love, And the new year will take 'em away. Old year, you must not go: So long as you have been with us, Such joy as you have seen with us, Old year, you shall not go. He frothed his bumpers to the brim: A jollier year we shall not see; But though his eyes are waxing dim, And though his foes speak ill of him, He was a friend to me. Old year, you shall not die: We did so laugh and cry with you, I've half a mind to die with you, Old year, if you must die._ ALFRED TENNYSON. X. ST. AGNES' EVE. _The Old Year--St. Agnes--Keats' Poem--The Circlet of Pearls--A Cloud--The Promise--Mrs. Snarle continues her Knitting._ The Old Year had just gone by--the dear, sad Old Year! He died in the blustering wind, out in the cold! He lay down in the shadows, moaned, and died! Something has gone with thee, Old Year, which will never come again: kind words, sweet smiles, warm lips--ah, no, they will never come again! Hold them near your heart for love of us, Old Year! They came with you, they went with you! _Kyrie eleyson!_ "I wish you could tarry with us," said Mortimer. "You were kind to us, merry and sad with us." And he repeated the lines, "Old year, you shall not die: We did so laugh and cry with you, I've half a mind to die with you, Old year, if you must die."