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THE PATH OF LIFE.

In the springtime once I wandered 'mid fair flowers of golden hue;
Wonder-eyed I gazed around me in those fields where all was new,
And a path stretched long before me, soft with moss and blossoms white,
While the birds, so sweetly singing, filled my soul with fresh delight.
Down the path, with song and laughter, came three maidens hand in hand,
By their side a shadow glided that I could not understand:
For I scarce could see it coming, yet I knew that it was there,
Like a cloud upon the brightness of a sky that was all fair—
Maids more beauteous than the blossoms of the flowers which deck the lea,

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