I want some one to tease me for my knife; to ride on my shoulder; to lose my axe; to follow me to the gate when I go, and be there to meet me when I come; to call "good-night" from the little bed, now empty. And wife, she misses him still more; there are no little feet to wash, no prayers to say; no voice teasing for lumps of sugar, or sobbing with the pain of a hurt toe; and she would give her own life, almost, to awake at midnight, and look across to the crib and see our boy there as he used to be.
So we preserve our relics; and when we are dead we hope that strangers will handle them tenderly, even if they shed no tears over them.
EMULATION (UP TO DATE).
BY JAMES CLARENCE HARVEY.
"He who would thrive must rise at five,"
The old folks used to say,
And so, of course, to thrive the more,
Tis better still to rise at four,
And make a longer day.
Still smarter he who wakes at three,
And hurries out of bed;
And he who would this man outdo
Must rise when clocks are striking two,
To earn his daily bread.
To rise and run at stroke of one,
Advantage still may keep;
But he who would them all forestall
Must never go to bed at all,
And die for lack of sleep.