HEATHER LAYS. 



Warm-hearted with kindred devotion, 

 Twin sisters in sympathy true, 



They whisper across the wide ocean, 

 Love-laden with memory's dew. 



In purple tints woven together 



The Hudson shakes hand with the Tweed, 

 Commingling with Abbotsford's heather 



The clover of Sunnyside's mead. 



A token of friendship immortal 



With Washington Irving returns 



Scott's ivy entwined o'er his portal 



By the "Blue-eyed Lassie" of Burns. 



Their names by heather-bells wedded 

 With fondness Columbia retains ; 



In freedom's foundation imbedded 

 The lay of the minstrel remains. 



Ay, this their commission and glory, 



In redolent bloom to prolong 

 Love, liberty, legend, and story, 



That blossom in ballad and song. 



So here's to the clover and heather 

 Of riverside, mountain and glen, 

 As I stand wi' doffed bonnet and feather 



At the yett of my forbears again. 

 -Wallace Bruce, in "Dover and Heather." Copy 

 right by the author. 



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