Come unto me, my son, if sin shall have tempted thee astray,
I will not chide thee like the rest, but help thee to return;
Come unto me, my son, if men rebuke and mock thee,
There always shall be one to bless,—for I am on thy side!
Alas,—and bitter is their loss, the parents, and the children,
Who, loving up and down the world, have missed each other's friendship.
Haply, it had grown of careless life, for years go swiftly by;
Or sprang of too much carefulness, that drank up all the streams:
Haply, sullen disappointment came and quenched the fire;