The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1857-10-14
truth and Right God and cur Country.


fire and weep over the woes Of the 'Babes
in the Wood" who lay down side by side in
the great solemn shadows; aud how strange
ly glad we ieel when the robinred-bteast
covered them with leaves; aud last OF all,
when the angels took them out of The nigh,
into day everlasting.
We may think what we will of il now -
but The song and the story heard around the
kitchen fire have colosed the thoughts and
lives Of most Of us; have given US the germs
of whatever poetry blesses our heart what
ever memory blooms in our yesterdays. At
tribute what ever we may 10 the school and
schoolmaster, the rays which make that
little we call life, radiate from the God swept
circles of the hearhstone.
Then she sings an old lullaby she sang 10
mother-her mother sang 10 her. but she
does not sing it through, and fal'ers ere His
done. She rests her head upon her hands,
and i, is silent in the old kitchen. Some
thing gliers down be,ween her fingers and
the freight, and ii looks like ram in the
soft sunshine. The old grandmother is think
ing when she first heard the song and the
voice that sang il, when a light.halred and
lighl-hearted girl, she hung around that
mothers chair, nor saw the shadows OF the
days 10 come. 0! the day that are no more!
What a spell we weave TO bring them back
sgain? What words can We unsay, what
deeds undo, to sci back just this once, the
ancient clock Of timei
So all of little hands were forever cliuging
TO her garment, and staying her as il from
dying, for long ago she had done living for
herself, aud lived alone in us. But the old
kitchen wants q presence to-day, and the
rush. .bottomed chair is lenanlless.
How she used TO welcome us when we
were grown, and came home once more 10
| the homestead.
We thought we were men and women,
but we were children there. The old fash
ioned grandmother was blind in the eyes,
but she saw with her heart, as she always
did. We threw our long shadows through
the open door, and she iel, them as the fell
over WCt tUlIti, dIe suC ipOhSu ft'h''1 "P "he
saw tall shades in The door way, aud she
says, edward know, and Lucy's voice
can hear, but whose is that other! 1t must
be James ,"--for she has almost forgotten
the folden hands. "Oh, no, not Jane, for
she-iet me see-she is waiting for me, isn't
she 2" and the grandmother wandered and
wepl. ......
alt is another daughter, grandmother that
Edward has brought" says some one, "for
your blessing"
"Has she blue eyes, my sons Put heI
hand in mine, for she is my latest born, the
child of my old age. Shall sing you song
children 2" Her hand is III her pocket as OF
old, she is idly lumbing for q toy, wei.
come gift 10 the children that have come
again.
One of us, men as we thought we were is
weeping; sire hears the half suppressed sob
she SAYS, as she extends her feeble hand
"Hero my poor child, rest upon your grand
mothers shoulder; she will protect you from
all harm. Come, children, sit around the
fire again. Shall | sing you song, or iel
you a story? Stir the fire, for it is cold, the
nights are growing colder"
The clock in the corner struck nine, the
bedtime of those old days. The song OF
life was indeed sung, the story told; ii was
bod time a, last. Good night to thee, grand
mother The old fashioned grandmother
was no more, and we miss her forever
But we will set up tablet in the midst o
the memory, in the midst of her heart, and
write on il only this:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE
OLD-FASHIONED GRANDMOTHER,
God bless her forever.