Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1847-08-04
THE HAPPIEST TINE.
ID I ELIZA COOK

M ELIZA CoOk.
An Old Man sat in his chimney seat,
As the morning sunbeam crept to his feet;
And he watched the Spring light as it came
With wider ray on his window frame
lie looked right on to the Eastern sky,
But his breath grew long in trembling sigh,
and those who heard il wondered much
What Spirit hand made him feel its touch.
For the Oid Man was not one of the fair
And sensitive plants in earth's parterre;
His hesft was among the senseless things
That rarely are famed by the honey bees wings;
1t bore no film of delicate pride,
No dew Of Emotion gathered inside;
"a that Old Mans heart was of hardy kind
That scemcth to heed not the sun or the wind.
He had lived in the world as millions live,
Ever more ready TO take than give;
lie had worked ana welded, and murmured and
blamed,
And just paid to the fraction what Honesty claimed
he had driven his bargains and counted his gold.
I'LL upwards OF three score years were told:
And his keen blue eye held nothing TO show
That Feeling had ever been busy below
The Old Man sighed again. and hid
His keen blue eye beneath its lid;
And his wrnked forehead, bending down.
Was knitting itself in painful lrown
I've been looking back the Old Man sa;d
On every spot where my path has laid,
Over every year my brain can trace
To find the happ:est time and place
And where and when,' cried one by his side,
" Have you iound the brightest wave in your tide =?
Come tell me freely, and let me learn
How the spark was struck that yet can burn
Was 1t when you stood in stalwart strength
With the blood OF youth and elt that at length
Your stout right arm could win its bread!"
The Old Man quietly shook his head
. Then it must have been when Love had come,
With faithful bride to glad your home
Or when the irst-bon Good and smil'd
And your bosom Graded its own ueet child,
Or was it when that frst-bon Joy,
Grew up to your hope-a brave strong boy
And promised to gill TIE world in your stead?1
The Old Man quietly shook his head
Say, was it then when Fortune brought
The round sum you had frugally sought?
Was the year the happiest that beheld
The vision of Poverty all dispclled!
Or was it when you still had more,
And found you could boast goodly store
With Labor finished and Plenty sprcad!1
The Old Man quietly shook his head
:" AL no! ah no it was longer ago
The Old Man muttered--sadly and low
d" 1t was when took my lonely way
To the lonely woods in the month of May
Where the Spring light fell as it 1alleth now,
With the bloom on the sod and the Leaf on the
Dough;
When tossed up my cap at the nest in the tree,
Oh that was the happ.cst time for me.
" When used to leap and laugh, and shout,
Though never knew what my joy about;
And something seemed to warm my breast,
As sat on a messy bank TO rest
That was the time-when | used to roll
On the blue bells that covered the upland knoll
And never could tell why the thought should be,
But fanc!ed the flowers talked to me.
" Well remember climbing to reach
A squirrel brood rocked on the top OF a beech
Well | remember the lilies so sweet
That | toiled with back to the city street;
Yes, that was the time-the happiest time
When went to the woods in their May-day prime
And the Old Man bredtbed with longer sigh
And the lid fell closer over his eye.
Oh, who would have thought this hard Old Man
Had room in his heart for such rainbow span!
Who would have deemed that wild copse flowers
Were tenderly haunting his latest hours?
But what did the Old Mans spirit tell,
In coniessing it loved the woods so we'll!
W hat do we learn from the Old Mans sigh,
Bat that Nature and Poetry cannot die