  WHERE is Ella? Ella Lee? How I’ve missed her childish glee. Missed her step so light and airy, Missed the darling little fairy. She was nimble as a fawn, Lovely as the blush of dawn, And her voice sweet as the rill Gliding down the grassy hill. Where is she, I’ve missed her so, Surely some one ought to know. I have called her in the crowd, Called her soft and called her loud, Called her sad and called her sweet, In the house and on the street. Yet she does not seem to hear, Though I’ve called her far and near. Hark! I hear a blackbird’s note, And he wears a brand new coat; Surely some sweet word he brings, On his iridescent wings. Let me hail him by this tree. Listen! now he sings to me, Tells me, in his honest way, That our darling’s gone away. Far, so far away she roams, Into other hearts and homes, Ah! the budding little flower Sweetens every empty hour, Making earth a dream of bliss By the magic of her kiss. Though she fled like a sunbeam, Still I hold a treasured dream, And were she to skip to-day, In her easy, childish way, To the playground of my heart, Childhood’s gate would fly apart, And she’d find the violet’s face, Smiling still in memory’s vase; Green and fresh the springtime sod, That her dainty feet had trod. |
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