The Return Home, 6

When I, on my travels, by hazard,
My sweetheart’s family found,
Her sister and father and mother,--
They gave me a welcome all round.

When they for my health had inquired,
They added, all of a breath,
That they thought me quite unalter’d,
Though my face was pale as death.

I ask’d for their aunts and their cousins,
And many a tiresome friend;
I ask’d for the little puppy
Whose soft bark knew no end.

And then for my married sweetheart
I ask’d, as if just call’d to mind,
And they answer’d, in friendly fashion,
That she had but just been confin’d.

I gave them my very best wishes,
And lovingly begg’d them apart
That they’d give her a thousand greetings
From the bottom of my heart.

Then cried the little sister:
“The small and gentle hound
Grew to be big and savage,
And in the Rhine was drown’d.”

That little one’s like my sweetheart,
So like when she wears a smile!
Her eyes are the same as her sister’s
Which caus’d all my mis’ry the while.