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THE SECRET.
"O what saw you, gathering flowers so early this May morn?"
"I saw a shining blackbird loud whistling on a thorn;
I saw the mottled plover from the swamp-edge fly away;
I heard the blithe song-sparrows who welcomed the bright day;
I heard the curlew calling, O sweet, so sweet and far!
I saw the white gull twinkling in the blue sky like a star."

"And is the blackbird whistling yet, and does the curlew call,
And should I find your rapture if I saw and heard it all?
Life seems to me so hard to bear, perplexed with change and loss,
Heavy with pain, and weary still with care's perpetual cross,