New York Dispatch

Heart Pictures,
No. 2—'NELL.'
By Julian Cross.

"Yes it's a long time I've know'd her,
We were young 'uns together, yer see!
And I was the first one as show'd her
The place where the mill used to be.

"And often and often I've lead her
To get through the work of the day;
And whenever she wanted a shelter,
It was hers, sir, as long as she'd stay.

"Loved her? Why sir it was worship
To me Nell was more than my life's
And one day, with courage, I let slip
My wish, sir, to make her my wife.

"And she laughed—oh! I hear that laugh ringing
Like steel on the grate of my heart;
Then she tripped from my side, gayly singing,
And the light seemed with her to depart.

"I felt as if lone with malady
As I turned down the lane by the mill;
But the feeling gave place to a sadness
That was silent and horribly still.

"Then I learned she was fond of another,
A man with white hands and a ring,
Who had lifted the pride of her mother
And received her, poor innocent thing.

"It came out a little while after.
I left her, a daughter of shame,
And we listened in vain for her laughter
Which, now he was gone, never came.

"Last night, sir, we missed her for hours—
She had such a pie in tears—forgive her
So I searched far and trod deep where the flowers
And reeds line the bank of the river.

"Yes, sir, 'twas there that I found her
With her long hair afloat on the tide
And the rushes and lilies around her
And a garland of noose by her side.

"I took her up gently, and bore her
Along to her home by the mill,
And I silently knelt down before her
And watched, as she lay there so still.

"That cap in hers that you see, sir,
With the white cross marked on the bill:
Those tears—well, there, never mind me, sir
Yer feelings can't always be still."