Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1825-05-25
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From the Emporium
THE RETURN.

THE RETURN.
s-To the home Of my childhood in sorrow l
came,
.4ndfondly expected to find 1T The same,
Falll of sunshine and joy as thought At 10 be,
When the eorld lDas all joy, and sunshine TO
me-"
There was one who never said, or
sung, or heard these beautiful and pa
thetic lines without tear. Poor May
-wood--his memory haunts me yet, though
almost ten summers have smiled above
his grave. The spot of earth that was
our home 10 childhood always takes
fast hold of our affections, and our ear
Hest friends are remembered with the
wafimest hearts. When trials press a.
round US, and troubles crowd our path
way, as we pursue our journey to the
consummation of our destinies, we turn
to the peaceful heritage of our fathers,
still robed by fancy in its fadeless green,
as TO the only bright abode in the wide
world, and lose in the contemplation of
its remembered loneliness one half the
pain and tumhlt Of the present; and so,
too, when the friends Of later years
grow faithless and deceive US, the light
Of youthful friendships, undimmed in
the distance, glow brighter and still
more bright, as the star that family
twinkled in the twilight blazes in all its
native lustre, when the gathered Hades
of the night crowd into the deep bosom
of the heavens. 1t was thus with May
wood
He was born and brought up on the
banks of the Hudson, not indeed in the
midst of luxury, but surrounded by
plenty, and blest with an unoroken Cir
Gle of bosom friends and relatives--a
father, whom he loved as life, and we'll
be n ght, for he was one of the best of
parents a mother, whose whole soul
was wrapt up in the darling boy,
and who idolized him almost to a fault
brother and a sister younger than HIM
self, and loved by him more fondly, be-
cause tt.ay ere more helpless; and a
company of schoolma,es, in whose mer-
ny holiday circles he was the umpire
Of every controversy, and the prince to
whom they paid the largest tribute of
their affections. Here he had dwelt
for years, and, as he ripensd into YOUTH
full vigor, amid scenes so delightful and
90 full of bliss, his very existence be-
came wrapt up, day by day, in the en-
dearments of his home, and the enjoy
ments of calm and unruffled peaceful
ness.
Besides all this, there was one other
ligament, which, bad all these been sew
cred, would have bound him to the
scenes of his childhood, had fortune
willed it, forever.--Beauty threw her
svitching chain around him at an early
day, and it grew stronger as he grew
older. Annette was year younger
than himself. From the companion of
his infancy, and the partaker Of his
sports. she became the mistress of his
first affections, and where love is mu-
tual, as it was here, ii is not apt to be
ouenched even by time itself--She
was a bewitching creature, beautiful
beyond expression, ,and in the full bloom
of health, gay, sprightly, and fond of
those who loved her; returning the
homage Of worship with worship, even
more nearly allied TO idolalry; it was
no wonder that Haywood loved--no
wonder that, as he grew towards man
hood, his soul reflected but the light of
hess.