70 THE HAWTHORN. 



verily believed to be bestowed for the express pur- 

 pose of honouring our domestic fete. 



Years rolled over us : to others they were years 

 of mingled cloud and sunshine, but to us they 

 brought no sorrow, for we were not parted 

 Sheltered in the house of our birth, never trans- 

 planted to unlearn in other habitations the sweet 

 lesson of mutual love and confidence, the early 

 link was not broken ; other companionship was 

 unsought, undesired. Early associations lost none 

 of their endearing power ; and the hawthorn 

 hedge, perfectly accessible to the tall lad and 

 active lass, was visited by them as punctually on 

 the morning of their pleasantest anniversary, as it 

 had been by the lisping babes of three or four 

 short summers. 



I never went alone to gather the May-blossoms, 

 until my companion had crossed the sea, and 

 drawn the sword in the battle-fields. I did indeed 

 then go there alone, for this world contained not 

 one who could supply his place to me ; and be- 

 yond this world I had not learned to look. I was 

 solitary, in the fullest sense of the word, and very 

 sad at heart ; but deeply imbued with the same 

 chivalrous spirit which had led my brother from 

 his happy home, to scenes of deadly strife : I 

 strove, by the false glare of imagined glory — that 

 glory which is indeed as a flower of the field — to 

 dazzle my tearful eyes. I intermixed my haw 



