BY THE ROADSIDE. 



Dropped the warm rain from the brooding sky 



Softly all the summer afternoon ; 

 Up the road I loitered carelessly, 



Glad to be alive in blissful June. 



Though so gray the sky, and though the mist 

 Swept the hills and half their beauty hid ; 



Though the scattering drops the broad leaves kissed 

 And no ray betwixt the vapor slid, 



Vet the daisies tossed their white and gold 



In the quiet fields on either side, 

 -And the green gloom deepened in the old 

 Walnut trees that flung their branches wide ; 



And the placid river wound away 



Westward to the hills through meadows fair, 



.Flower-fringed and starred, while blithe and gay 

 Called the blackbirds through the balmy air. 



