Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) HETTY'S STRANGE HISTORY. BY HELEN JACKSON (H.H.) AUTHOR OF "RAMONA," "A CENTURY OF DISHONOR," "VERSES," "SONNETS AND LYRICS," "GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS," "BITS OF TRAVEL," "BITS OF TRAVEL AT HOME," "ZEPH," "MERCY PHILBRICK'S CHOICE," "BETWEEN WHILES," "BITS OF TALK ABOUT HOME MATTERS," "BITS OF TALK FOR YOUNG FOLKS," "NELLY'S SILVER MINE," "CAT STORIES." BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1886. Copyright,1877, BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. _I._ _What lover best his love doth prove and show?_ _The one whose words are swiftest, love to state?_ _The one who measures out his love by weight_ _In costly gifts which all men see and know?_ _Nay! words are cheap and easy: they may go_ _For what men think them worth: or soon or late,_ _They are but air. And gifts? Still cheaper rate_ _Are they at which men barter to and fro_ _Where love is not!_ _One thing remains. Oh, Love,_ _Thou hast so seldom seen it on the earth,_ _No name for it has ever sprung to birth;_ _To give one's own life up one's love to prove._ _Not in the martyr's death, but in the dearth_ _Of daily life's most wearing daily groove._ _II_. _And unto him who this great thing hath done,_ _What does Great Love return? No speedy joy!_ _That swift delight which beareth large alloy_ _Is guerdon Love bestowed on him who won_ _A lesser trust: the happiness begun_ _In happiness, of happiness may cloy,_ _And, its own subtle foe, itself destroy._ _But steadfast, tireless, quenchless as the sun_ _Doth grow that gladness which hath root in pain._ _Earth's common griefs assail this soul in vain._ _Great Love himself, too poor to pay such debt,_ _Doth borrow God's great peace which passeth yet_ _All understanding. Full tenfold again_ _Is found the life, laid down without regret!_ HETTY'S STRANGE HISTORY. I.