The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1863-07-30
Coming Back soon.

one says to the eager boy who is going
| out from the quiet of his native village to
make his way in the great hustling world
beyond.
"Oh, yes--as soon as have made my
fortune" is the laughing reply, aud the
good-byes are exchanged, and the stage
coach rolls off, bearing more hope and
happiness on its back seat than, with the
same occupant, it will ever bring back
again.
"Coming back soon p The little boy
knows that he may never come back =
Something may come that will be taller
| and more graceful, and attractive, and call
his parents father and mother-something
that will look half sadly, half contemptu-
| ously on the old familiar place where his
| youth was spent,-but the boy-happy,
eager, hopeful and innocent-has gone
| forever.
| "Coming back soon !" Is this young
lady, ringletted, hounced and gioved, who
plays the piano to charm, aud who looks
askance at kitchen, towel and broom, the
sun Drowned, good natured little Maggie,
who wore her curls flying in the summer
| wind? This young lady's locks are poma-
TUNED, scented, carefully ''done up" ao-
cording to the latest fashion. Maggie
wore blue ginSham frock, which had
always danced before his vision as the
most charming thing in existence, but
"Miss Marguerite" arrays her dainty limbs
hoops Of such circumference that he can
only stand and admire at respectful dis
tance. Sometimes as they sit side by side
he remembers the old times, and half
wishes they would come back again, but
his first glance at the composed face beside
him annihilates the idea, and DE heaves
| kind of ruGful sigh, and lets it pass away.
| Bye and bye, "Miss Marguerite" is mar
ried to a rich old man-old enough to be
ber grandfather. He goes to her wedding,
and he drinas her health in the lest Of
wine-begius 20 dream himself of a veal
| thy wife, and thinks it wont do to be
foolish, and that he must have an eye to
business when he gives himself away
| The fast young man and the woman of
| fashion meet often In their gay city lite
! but the boy and the girl who have walked
| hand in hand to school, have gone stray
ing away together over the strawberry field
and daisied pastures long ago, and nobody
back soon!"
"Coming backv' Who ever yet came
back and found all things unchanged p
Drive the long remembered road, aud you
will miss here tree, here a patch of
daisies and buttercups, and here and there
an old gray farm house which you fondly
hoped would outlast your day and genera
ton. Enter the town which was once ga
happy valley" to you, and what do you
see? Only a puny village, with the
pleasant walks you used to love turned
into ambitious side walks, and paved with
the roughes. of stones; with old, familiar
houses and fences re-modeled and newly
painted, till you lose all the landmarks,
with everything changed, and you, it may
be, most of all Sit down, if you will, in
your lonely room, and call up tae forms of
those you loved, who are now scattered
away, and try TO people the dusty streets
with more beloved faces Can you succeed
Is it not poor, pale phantom that you
strive to press to your aching heart! Was
it wise in you, after all, this "coming
back" Oh, the past is beautiful to look
at, but when, afar of, we stretch out our
hands to bring it nearer, it vanishes, and
leaves nothing in our grasp but thin, un-
substantial air.
"Strange p / sit in my lonely room
to-day, and miss something familiar
something sweet--something dear-very
dear! 1t will never linger here again,
the sunlight falling through the easement
will never linger here again ; the sunlight
falling through the easement will never
shine on me. here any more. One page of
| life's romance has been read; shut the
book aud pu. it away. Much tha. might
have blessed me-much that might have
loved-much that / shall never meet
again-and much that has consecrated
this little room-has passed away like
! dream of beauty, and will beam and
! brighten here no more. 1t is not, cannot
be .coming back soon."
But there is land-thank God-there
is land where all the lost light and love-
liDess of life shall cluster around US with
tenfold the glory it has won for us here
| There is land where there shall be no
more partings and no more tears where
the young and the old, the happy and the
wretched, the bond and the free, shall all
! know the loving kindness and tender
mercy of God whose divine attribute is
love.
sx~ Subscribe for The AIkgeBAhIAr,
y -