A child in sable garb who looked like me.
A child so like to me in form and face,
It seemed a mirror standing in the place.
He cast on me one long and earnest look,
Then bent with me o’er the forbidden book.
A smile mysterious he wore, but never spoke,
And vanished from me as the daylight broke.
The years sped by; one dreamy autumn day
The eager chase had led me far astray;
Fantastic shadows thronged the solitude