AN OLD ‘CHUBB.’

Last night I found an old forgotten key

Deep in an unused drawer; and quick tears fell

As in my hand I took it tenderly—

For ah! I knew the story it would tell

Of a familiar door, a ‘vanished hand,’

A cheery ‘click’ by eager children heard—

‘Papa is home!’—Ah, little loyal band!

How oft your hearts grew sick with hope deferred

In the time after! for ‘Papa’ went forth

And came not back. Then dawned some darksome days:

The cottage home was sold; and we came north

To a gray city street, to flowerless ways.

On the bright steel, great spots of rust had grown—

‘It would not turn so easily as then’

(I thought), ‘and “Rosebank” is no more my own—

I have no claim to enter it again.

‘Maybe its door has now a different lock—

And oh, if even I could venture there,

What should I find? my misery to mock—

Ghosts of the dead—strangers’ careless stare.’

I took the key and laid it out of sight:

‘Since thou canst no more ope the door for me

Of that dear home, thou needst not see the light,

For only doors of tears are oped by thee.’

Kate.

The Conductor of Chambers’s Journal begs to direct the attention of Contributors to the following notice:

1st. All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.’

2d. For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps should accompany every manuscript.

3d. To secure their safe return if ineligible, All Manuscripts, whether accompanied by a letter of advice or otherwise, should have the writer’s Name and Address written upon them IN FULL.

4th. Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope.

If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible papers.

Printed and Published by W. & R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Obeah, a form of African magic or witchcraft.

[2] The word Creole is much misunderstood by most English people. In its universal West Indian sense it is applied to any person, white, black, or mulatto, born in the West Indies, as opposed to outsiders, European, American, or African.