HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY SHELDON FUND COPYRIGHT, 1876, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, & Co. BOSTON. WQR 19 FEB 36 PREFACE. THESE "Roadside Poems," originally planned as a collection of mountain poetry, have taken a course of their own in the compiler's hand, becoming thus what the title indicates. The book begins and ends like the journey of a summer traveller, and may prove an agreeable companion to such as take it with them in their journeyings; for it lingers by brook and river, among mossy rocks and wayside blossoms, and under overhanging trees, and climbs and descends the hills of our own land, and the countries across the sea. If it pauses long upon the mountain-sides, it is because there all travellers love to stay their feet, and refresh eyes and heart with a grander horizon. And its frequent returns to certain great poets may be allowed for a similar reason. It has its occasional story or legend, and also |