Hubert shook his head as he received with reluctance the bounty of the stranger; and Locksley, anxious to escape further observation, mixed with the crowd, and was seen no more.
A Plea for the Old Year[F]
BY LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON.
I see the smiling New Year climb the heights— The clouds, his heralds, turn the sky to rose, And flush the whiteness of the winter snows, Till Earth is glad with Life and Life's delight. The weary Old Year died when died the night, And this newcomer, proud with triumph, shows His radiant face, and each glad subject knows The welcome monarch, born to rule aright.
Yet there are graves far off that no man tends, Where lie the vanished loves and hopes and fears, The dreams that grew to be our hearts' best friends, The smiles, and, dearer than the smiles, the tears— These were that Old Year's gifts, whom none defends, Now his strong Conqueror, the New, appears.
Copyright, 1899, by Little, Brown & Co. (Reprinted by permission.)