Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NEW-YEAR'S EVE. TWO LADIES. If yon're waking, call me early, call me early, mother dear; For I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year : It is the last New Year that I shall ever see; Then yon may lay me low i' the mould, and think no. more of me. To-night I saw the sun set. He set, and left behind The good old year, the dear old time, and all my peace of mind. And the New Year's coming up, mother; but I shall never see The blossom on the black-thorn, the leaf upon the tree. Last May, we made a crown of flowers ; we had a merry day: Beneath the hawthorn on the green, they made me Queen o' May; And we danced about the May-pole, under the hazel-copse, Till Charles's Wain came out above the tall white chimney-tops. There's not a flower on all the hills; the frost is on the pane: I only wish to live till the snowdrops come again. I wish the snow would melt, and the sun come out on high; I long to ace a flower so the day before I die I I have been wild and wayward: but you'll forgive me now ; You'll kiss me, my own mother, upon my cheek and brow. Nay, nay! you must not weep, nor let your grief be wild: You should not fret for me, mother; you have another child. Good-night, sweet mother! Call me before the day is born. All night I lie awake; but I fall asleep at morn. But I would sec the sun rise upon the glad New Year : So, if you're waking, call me, call me eurly, mother dear. Tennyson. This companion-piece to the May Queen is in sad contrast to the bright, joyous character of that beautiful tableau. The scene represents the same young girl who personated the May Queen, lying upon a lounge in the centre of the stage, a victim of disease, and supposed to be at the point of death. She is bolstered up in a sitting position on the lounge. Her hea...