Its many glimmering sisters
Are vanished long ago,
In the night and the wind they vanished
With all my joy and my woe.
And like the mists of evening
Did those blue stars depart,
That smiled all joys and sorrows
Into my trusting heart.
Alas! my love, too, melted
Like idle breath one day;
Oh lingering, lonely tear-drop,
Thou also fade away!
XXX.
The pale half-moon of autumn
Through clouds peers doubtfully.
Within the lonely churchyard
The parsonage I see.
The mother reads in her Bible,
The son at the light doth gaze;
One drowsy daughter is nodding,
While another speaks and says:
"Ah me! how dreary the days are!
How dull, and dark, and mean!
Only when there's a funeral
Is anything to be seen."
The mother looks from her Bible:
"Nay, only four in all
Have died since thy father was buried
Without by the churchyard wall."
Then yawns the eldest daughter,
"I will starve no longer here;
I will go to the Count to-morrow,
He is rich, and he loves me dear."
The son bursts out a-laughing:
"At the 'Star' three huntsmen drink deep;
They are making gold, and they promise
To give me their secret to keep."