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| A LITTLE blind girl wandering, | |
| While daylight pales beneath the moon, | |
| And with a brook meandering, | |
| To hear its gentle tune. | |
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| The little blind girl by the brook, | 5 |
| It told her something—you might guess, | |
| To see her smile, to see her look | |
| Of listening eagerness. | |
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| Though blind, a never silent guide | |
| Flowed with her timid feet along; | 10 |
| And down she wandered by its side | |
| To hear the running song. | |
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| And sometimes it was soft and low, | |
| A creeping music in the ground; | |
| And then, if something checked its flow, | 15 |
| A gurgling swell of sound. | |
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| And now, upon the other side, | |
| She seeks her mother’s cot; | |
| And still the noise shall be her guide, | |
| And lead her to the spot. | 20 |
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| For to the blind, so little free | |
| To move about beneath the sun, | |
| Small things like this seem liberty,— | |
| Something from darkness won. | |
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| But soon she heard a meeting stream, | 25 |
| And on the bank she followed still, | |
| It murmured on, nor could she tell | |
| It was another rill. | |
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| “Ah! whither, whither, my little maid? | |
| And wherefore dost thou wander here?” | 30 |
| “I seek my mother’s cot,” she said, | |
| “And surely it is near.” | |
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| “There is no cot upon this brook, | |
| In yonder mountains dark and drear, | |
| Where sinks the sun, its source it took, | 35 |
| Ah, wherefore art thou here?” | |
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| “O sir, thou art not true nor kind! | |
| It is the brook, I know its sound. | |
| Ah! why would you deceive the blind? | |
| I hear it in the ground.” | 40 |
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| And on she stepped, but grew more sad, | |
| And weary were her tender feet, | |
| The brook’s small voice seemed not so glad, | |
| Its song was not so sweet. | |
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| “Ah! whither, whither, my little maid? | 45 |
| And wherefore dost thou wander here?” | |
| “I seek my mother’s cot,” she said, | |
| “And surely it is near.” | |
| |
| “There is no cot upon this brook.” | |
| “I hear its sound,” the maid replied, | 50 |
| With dreamlike and bewildered look, | |
| “I have not left its side.” | |
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| “O go with me, the darkness nears, | |
| The first pale stars begin to gleam.” | |
| The maid replied with bursting tears, | 55 |
| “It is the stream! it is the stream!” | |
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