CHAPTER VI.
Golden light of life’s glad morning,
Oh, so long, so long ago,
I am looking, looking backward
From the hills all white with snow.
And it is so bleak and dreary,
Oh, this long and toilsome way!
And my feet are worn and weary
Marching onward day by day.
And the road is growing rougher,
Desolate on every side,
The mountains tower higher, higher,
And the storm sweeps far and wide;
And the skies are ever shrouded
By the clouds, all stern and gray,
And the light grows dim and dimmer
As night-time closes down the day.
And I scarce can trace the pathway
That I tread with pain and moan,
And I have no place of refuge,
And my rest is but a stone;
But I’m marching, ever marching
Toward the far-off sunset shore,
And I sometimes catch the flashing
Of its rays that glimmer o’er
The rugged, bleak, and lofty mountains
That seem e’er to bar my way
Toward the “city of the sunset”
That I’m nearing day by day.
Up and down the grim, dark mountains,
Where the torrents leap and roar,
I am struggling onward, onward,
Oft with heart so faint and sore.
Through the vales of desolation
Where no living thing is seen,
Over crags and yawning chasms,
Where dread dangers lurk between.
But I press on through all perils,
While the days pass one by one;
Soon I’ll reach the “City Golden,”
Beyond the setting of the sun.
The light that glows above the mountains,
Grows brighter, nearer every hour;
It sustains and cheers me onward,
Renews my courage by its power.
And I’m trusting for a meeting
Where the lights immortal beam,
With the friends that blest my childhood
In the old cottage by the stream.