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ROSEBUD AND ROSE.

THE night before I sailed for Spain

We stood together, Rose and I,

Outside the ball-room, on the stairs,

And looked and spoke the last good-by.

I begged a flower, to me more fair

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Than any other flower that blows.

With laughing eyes she bade me choose

A dainty rosebud, or a rose.

"Give me the bud," I quickly cried,

"No full-developed flower for me.

Youth, youth alone is fair; soon fades

The blossom of maturity."

Two years are past, and I return

To find my little rose in bloom;

A glorious creature, nobly wrought,

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