Littell's Living Age/Volume 135/Issue 1750/Indian Summer

by Katharine Margaret Brownlee Sherwood

INDIAN SUMMER

Her harvests gathered and her wines distilled,
⁠And all fair robes laid by for festal spring,
The year sits down her argosies to build
⁠That shall from Orient climes sweet traffic bring.

With wistful smiles she sets them all afloat,
⁠Beneath blue skies soft veiled with gathering mist —
Like tears that rise in mother-eyes that note
⁠The dear girl-face some beckoning love has kissed —

And says: "Go forth where rarest lilies bloom!
⁠Bear spice and perfume from the nether seas!
When silent grows the winter’s crashing loom
⁠Return, with all the joy of buds and bees!"

Evening Post.Kate M. Sherwood