There was a bird as blithe as free, (Summer and sun and song) She sang by the shores of a laughing sea, And oh, but the world seemed fair to me, And the days were sweet and long. (Summer and sun and song) And the days were sweet and long. There was a hunter, a hunter bold, (Autumn and storm and sea) And he prisoned the bird in a cage of gold, And oh, but the world grew dark and cold, And the days were sad to me. (Autumn and storm and sea) And the days were sad to me. The hunter has gone; ah, what cares he? (Winter and wind and rain) And the caged bird pines for the air and the sea, And I long for the right to set her free To sing in the sun again. (Winter and wind and rain) To sing in the sun again. The hunter has gone with a sneer at fate, (Spring and the sea and the sun) Let the bird fly free to find her mate, Ere the year of love grow sere and late. Sweet ladye, my song is done. (Spring and the sea and the sun) Sweet ladye, my song is done. Mabel's Letter to Maurice. To the song of your muse I have listened. Oh, cease To think of me but as a friend, dear Maurice. Once a wife, a wife alway. I vowed from my heart, "For better, for worse, until death do us part." No mention was made in the service that day Of breaking my fetters if joy flew away. "For better, for worse," a vow lightly spoken, When Fate brings the "worse," how lightly 'tis broken! The "worse," in my case, is the worst fate can give. Tho' I shrank from the blow, I must bear it and live, Not for self, but for duty; nor strive to evade Fulfilling the promise I willingly made. While Roger has sinned, and his sinning would be, In the eyes of the law, proof to render me free, It was God heard my vows and the Church sealed the bond. Until one of us passes to death's dim beyond, Though seas and though sins may divide us for life, We are bound to each other as husband and wife. In God's Court of Justice divorce is a word Which falls without import or meaning when heard; And the women who cast off old fetters that way, To give place to the new, on the great Judgment Day Must find, in the last summing up,
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