Page 293 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

O f their household lay in silence many years beneath the snow;
Eat her heart was with them living, back among her toiis and pleasures
Long; ago,

And again she called at dew-fall, in the sweet old summer weather,
N Where is little Charlie, father ? Frank and Robert— have they m m c?"
"They are safe,’' the old man faltered ; "all the children arc together
— safe at home.’1

Then he murmured gentle soothings, but his grief grew strong and
stronger,
Till it choked and stilled him as he held and kissed her wrinkled hand,
For her soul, far out of hearing, could his fondest words no longer
Understand.

Still tlie pale lips stammered cisestions, lullabies and broken verses,
Nursery prattle— all the language of a mother's loving heeds,
While the midnight found the mourner, left to sorrow's bitter mercies,
Wrapped in weeds.

There was stillness on the pillow—-and the old man listened lonely—
Till they led him from the chamber, with the burden on his breast,
For the wife of seventy years, his manhood’s early love and only,
Lay at rest,

"Fare-you-well," he sobbed, “ my Sarah; you will meet the babes
befoie m e;
Tis a little while, for neither can the parting long abide,
A.nd you *11 come and call me soon, 1 know— and I leaven will restore me
To vour side.”

It was even so. The spring-time in the steps of winter treading,
Scarcely shed its orchard blossoms ere the old man closed his eyes,
And they buried him by Sarah— and they had theirfi diamond wedding ”
In the skies.
T h ero tj BiiOWN.