Where is it, O my Mary, Ye are biding a' the while? I ha' wended by your window-- I ha' waited by the stile, An' up an' down the river I ha' won for mony a mile, Yet never found, adrift or drown'd, Your lang-belated smile. Is it forgot, my Mary, How glad we used to be?-- The simmer-time when bonny bloomed The auld trysting-tree,-- How there I carved the name for you, An' you the name for me; An' the gloamin' kenned it only When we kissed sae tenderly. Speek ance to me, my Mary!-- But whisper in my ear As light as ony sleeper's breath, An' a' my soul will hear; My heart shall stap its beating An' the soughing atmosphere Be hushed the while I leaning smile An' listen to you, dear! My Mary, O my Mary! The blossoms bring the bees; The sunshine brings the blossoms, An' the leaves on a' the trees; The simmer brings the sunshine An' the fragrance o' the breeze,-- But O wi'out you, Mary, I care nae thing for these! [Illustration: (THE AULD TRYSTING-TREE)] We were sae happy, Mary! O think how ance we said-- Wad ane o' us gae fickle, Or ane o' us lie dead,-- To feel anither's kisses We wad feign the auld instead, An' ken the ither's footsteps In the green grass owerhead. My Mary, O my Mary! Are ye daughter o' the air, That ye vanish aye before me As I follow everywhere?-- Or is it ye are only But a mortal, wan wi' care?-- Syne I search through a' the kirkyird An' I dinna find ye there! [Illustration: (MY MARY--TAILPIECE)] HOME AT NIGHT When chirping crickets fainter cry, And pale stars blossom in the sky, And twilight's gloom has dimmed the bloom And blurred the butterfly: When locust-blossoms fleck the walk, And up the tiger-lily stalk The glow-worm crawls and clings and falls And glimmers down the garden-walls: When buzzing things, with double wings Of crisp and raspish flutterings, Go whizzing by so very nigh One thinks of fangs and stings:-- O then, within, is stilled the din Of crib she rocks the baby in, And heart and gate and latch's weight Are lifted--and the lips of Kate. [Illustration: (HOME AT NIGHT)] [Illustration: (WHEN LIDE MARRIED _Him_--TITLE)] WHEN LIDE MARRIED _HIM_ When Lide married _him_--w'y, she had to jes dee-fy The whole poppilation!--But she never bat' an eye! Her parents begged, and _threatened_--she must give him up--that _he_ Wuz jes "a common drunkard!"--And he _wuz_, appearantly.-- Swore they'd chase him off the place Ef he ever showed his face-- Long after she'd _eloped_ with him and _married_ him fer shore!-- When Lide married _him_, it wuz "_Katy, bar the door!_"