That I had a lover I never guess'd,

As I danc'd along with my careless feet,

And the heart of a child within my breast.

I had seen him a dozen times before,

With a pleasure that brought no sudden change;

I knew that he lik'd me—but nothing more:

O Harry! to think of it is so strange!

[pg 11]

Sauntering on with the birds and the flowers,

Talking of things that we know or we knew—

Of the pretty wishes that once were ours

In long-ago times when our years were few:

A wild little bird skims rapidly by;

And I tell of a day when my heart was stirr'd,

And I cried as only a child can cry,

That I was a girl instead of a bird.

'And oh!' in an eager manner I cried,

'I am feeling the very same wish to-day:

Oh for two wild wings, and to spread them wide,

And rush through the sky away and away.'

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