Jessie by Walter Aimwell

Jessie had a small, old-fashioned miniature in her trunk, at which she / often gazed intently and sadly, in her hours of retirement. It was a / likeness of a young man of pleasing features and apparent / intelligence-one who was evidently on good terms with himself and the / world, and who had known little of the rough experiences of life. There / were very sad associations connected with this picture, in Jessie's / mind. She never could look at it without recalling the lines of the / poet-

/ "Of all sad words of tongue or of pen, / The saddest are these-it might have been."