[Illustration: "But, instead, I shot, to scare him,
All the buttons off his coat."]


13

"I forgot to tell you, Billy,
That for thirteen months or more,
You're the only man that's ever
Crossed the threshold of that door.
I have stayed alone and waited,
Full of faith that you would come,
So that I--might go to daddie,
And that you'd--have back your home.
Though perhaps I've sometimes suffered
From the cold and from the heat,
And I've gone for days together,
Here, without a bite to eat,
'Twasn't hunger of the body
That I craved to satisfy,
I was starved for--you--and daddie,
As the weary weeks trailed by.


14

"How I tried to think and reason
Why the fire from one caress
Turned my burning, yearning spirit
To a cinder of distress.