Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
The Two Friends
By Charles Godfrey Leland (18241903)I
And every night when midnight tolls they meet to laugh with me.
The second drowned near Alicante—while I alive remain.
And grieve to see them fade away in early morning light.
The second has married a mer-maiden, a beautiful water-wife.
’Tis a matter of small account to me—the way that I may die.
Or die in my bed, as a Christian should, is all the same to me.