And the hopes that died, and the broken vows
That severed far and wide,
And the toilworn hands, and the sad unrest,
And the loss on every side;
And the favored ones ’neath sunny skies
That dream there the hours away,
And the struggling poor in barren lands,
Where sad day follows day.
And the ships that sail over angry seas,
And nevermore reach the shore;
And the aching hearts, and the weary watch
For the loved that come no more.
Ah! I cannot still all these strange, sad thoughts,
Nor stay these falling tears;
The lonesome way is rough and long
Through life’s uncertain years.
And at times in the solemn night-time still
I sink by the hard way alone,
With the voiceless silence around me,
And my troubled rest a stone.
There comes to me a glad thought through the gloom,
That rest will the sweeter be
When the weary burden is cast aside
On the shores of eternity.
LIFE’S HIGHWAY.
CHAPTER I.
Life began in an old cottage,
Near the margin of a stream,
Close beside a grand old forest,
Where I saw the sunlight gleam
O’er the hills lit up with splendor
By the radiance of its light,
Searching out the dim recesses
Of the borders of the night.
Shimm’ring o’er the vales and woodlands
Wak’ning all the birds and flowers;
Caressing breezes through the leaflets,
Murmuring in fairy bowers.
Oh, the melody of song-birds,
I can hear it, hear it still,
Flooding all the fields and woodlands,
Rising o’er the rippling rill.
And I hear the tinkle, tinkle
Of the bells and lowing kine,
Echo, echo, down the grasslands,
Near the cornland’s waving line.
And I hear my father singing
Quaint old songs by field and fell;
Memory retains them fondly,
Still I love on them to dwell.