The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!

You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;
But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.

"To-night will be a stormy night-
You to the town must go;

And take a lantern, child, to light
Your mother through the snow."

"That, father, will I gladly do : 'Tis scarcely afternoon

The minster-clock has just struck two, And yonder is the moon."

At this the father raised his hook,
And snapped a faggot-band;
He plied his work;-and Lucy took
The lantern in her hand.

Not blither is the mountain roe:
With many a wanton stroke
Her feet disperse the powdery snow,
That rises up like smoke.

The storm came on before its time:
She wandered up and down;
And many a hill did Lucy climb,

But never reached the town.

The wretched parents all that night
Went shouting far and wide;
But there was neither sound nor sight
To serve them for a guide.

At day-break on a hill they stood
That overlooked the moor,

And thence they saw the bridge of wood
A furlong from their door.

And turning homeward, now they cried, "In heaven we all shall meet!"— When in the snow the mother spied The print of Lucy's feet.

Then downward from the steep hill's edge
They tracked the footmarks small;
And through the broken hawthorn-hedge,
And by the long stone wall;

And then an open field they crossed
The marks were still the same:
They tracked them on, nor ever lost,
And to the bridge they came.

They followed from the snowy bank
The footmarks, one by one,

Into the middle of the plank;

And further there were none !

Yet some maintain that to this day
She is a living child-

O'er rough and smooth she trips along,

And never looks behind;

And sings a solitary song

That whistles in the wind.