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"O God be thanked!" said Alice the nurse,

"That all comes round so just and fair:

Lord Ronald is heir of all your lands, And you are not the Lady Clare.'

Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse?"

Said Lady Clare, "that ye speak so wild?"

"As God's above," said Alice the nurse,

"I speak the truth: you are my child.

"The old Earl's daughter died at my breast;

I speak the truth, as I live by bread! I buried her like my own sweet child, And put my child in her stead."

"Falsely, falsely have ye done,

O mother," she said, "if this be true,

To keep the best man under the sun So many years from his due."

"Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse,

"But keep the secret for your life, And all you have will be Lord Ronald's,

When you are man and wife."

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"O mother, mother, mother," she said,

"So strange it seems to me. "Yet here's a kiss for my mother dear, My mother dear, if this be so, And lay your hand upon my head, And bless me, mother, ere I go."

She clad herself in a russet gown, She was no longer Lady Clare: She went by dale, and she went by down,

With a single rose in her hair.

The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought

Leapt up from where she lay, Dropt her head in the maiden's hand, And followed her all the way.

Down stept Lord Ronald from his tower:

"O Lady Clare, you shame your worth!

Why come you drest like a village maid,

That are the flower of the earth?”

"If I come drest like a village maid, I am but as my fortunes are: I am a beggar born," she said, "And not the Lady Clare."

"Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald,

"For I am yours in word and in deed.

Play me no tricks," said Lord Ronald, "Your riddle is hard to read.”

O and proudly stood she up!

Her heart within her did not fail; She looked into Lord Ronald's eyes, And told him all her nurse's tale.

He laughed a laugh of merry scorn: He turned and kissed her where she stood:

"If you are not the heiress born, And I," said he, "the next in blood

"If you are not the heiress born,

And I," said he, "the lawful heir We two will wed to-morrow morn, And you shall still be Lady Clare." TENNYSON.

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My father cou'dna work, and my mither cou'dna spin;

I toiled baith day and night, but their bread I cou'dna win; Auld Rob maintained them baith, and wi' tears in his ee

Said, Jenny, for their sakes, oh, will you marry me?

My heart it said nay; I looked for Jamie back;

But the wind it blew high, and the ship it proved a wrack, The ship it proved a wrack, - why didna Jenny dee?

And why do I live to say, Oh, waes me!

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St. Anton's well shall be my drink, Since my true love has forsaken me.

Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw,

And shake the green leaves off the tree?

O gentle death, when wilt thou come? For of my life I'm weary.

'Tis not the frost that freezes fell, Nor blawing thaw's inclemency; 'Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry, But my love's heart grown cauld to

me.

When we came in by Glasgow town,
We were a comely sight to see;
My love was clad in the black vel-
vet,

And I mysel in cramasie.

But had I wist before I kissed,
That love had been sae ill to win,
I'd locked my heart in a case of
gold,

And pinned it with a silver pin.

O, O, if my young babe were born,
And set upon the nurse's knee,
And I mysel were dead and gane
And the green grass growin' ower
me!

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