Twelve years! twelve years!—a long, long life for a little tasselled glove!
Yet, I treasure it still for his dear sake who clasped with so much love
The hand that wore, on that festal night, this delicate, dainty thing—
His forever! bound to him by the link of a wedding ring!
The glove is soiled and faded now, but the ring is as bright today
As the love that flooded my life with light on that beautiful first of May.
A MEMORY
[From the same]
A memory filled my heart last night
With all its youthful glow;
Under the ashes, out of my sight,
I buried it long ago;
I buried it deep, I bade it rest,
And whispered a long "good-by;"
But lo! it has risen—too sweet, too blest
Too cherished a thing to die.
In the dim, dim past, where the shadows fall,
I left it, but, crowned with light,
A spirit of joy in the banquet-hall,
It haunted my soul last night.
One earnest, tender, passionate glance—
I cherished it—that was all,
As we drifted on through the mazy dance
To a musical rise and fall.
It rose with a weird and witching swell,
'Mid the twinkling of merry feet,
And clasped me close in a wild, strange spell
Of memories bitter-sweet;
Bitter—because they left a sting
And vanished: a lifelong pain;
Sweet—because nothing can ever bring
Such joy to my heart again.
To me it was nothing, only a waltz;
To the other it meant no wrong;
Men may be cruel—who are not false—
And women remember too long.
[SALLIE R. FORD]
Mrs. Sallie Rochester Ford, the mother of good Grace Truman, was born at Rochester Springs, near Danville, Kentucky, in 1828. Miss Rochester was graduated from the female seminary at Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1849, and six years later she was married to Rev. Samuel H. Ford (1823-1905), a Baptist preacher and editor of Louisville and St. Louis. She was her husband's associate in his literary enterprises, rendering him excellent service at all times. Her last years were spent at St. Louis, in which city she died in February, 1910, having rounded out more than four score years. Mrs. Ford's religious novel, Grace Truman, or Love and Principle (New York, 1857) attracted wide attention in its day, and it was reprinted many times. It was read by thousands of young girls; and ministers descanted upon it in their sermons. While the work sets forth that the Baptist road is the only right of way to heaven, and is sentimental to the core, it is fairly well-written, and it undoubtedly did much good. A copy of it may be found in almost any collection of Kentucky books. Grace Truman was followed by Mary Bunyan (New York, 1859); Morgan and His Men (Mobile, Ala., 1864); Ernest Quest (New York, 1877); Evangel Wiseman (1907); and Mrs. Ford's final work, published at St. Louis, The Life of Rochester Ford, the Successful Christian Lawyer.