35. “MOTHER, 1 AM WEARY WAITING:

And from the darkness came a voice —

“Gone forever are your parents;

Long years ago you had your choice,

Speaking with your angry father.”

Lying on her bed at midnight,

Lonely Granny Chaugham murmured,

So her children have reported,

“Mother, I am weary waiting

For a sight of you and father

And my home beside the river —

All the vines above the door-way,

All the flowers in the garden —

Looking back I now am weeping

In my hut on Ragged Mountain.

“Follows here the gloomy shadow

From our mansion by the river,

And the angry words of father

In my ears are ever ringing —

Still I see your sorrow, Mother,

On the day my heart was broken

By the angry words of father,

‘ Never shall you wed this beggar.’

Mother! Mother! Have you missed me?

Then in answer came a whisper,

From the darkness came a whisper,

Moving like a darker shadow,

Like a gloomy thought of sorrow

In the blackness of the night-time,

Making all the world seem hopeless,

Speaking sadly in the darkness

“Lo! I'm dead and long departed

To the land beyond the sunset.”