Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-03-21
THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME
BY JOHN TODD, D. D.

lam now thinking of an aged couple
who are called " the old folks" who hav,
lived together, husband and wife, in the
same house over fifty years. They came
there young, sanguine and utterly unable
to conceive what they would pass through
in fifty years, or indeed that there could
be an end to half century. They have
reared carefully and properly educated
a large family of children. These have
all gone from them now, have families o
their own, and are filling, each, an i'm
portant place in society, and some o.
them high posts of influence
| They are all members of Christ {
church in the order of their parents
And SO the old folks are left alone
just as they started in life. They have
long worn glasses; but at the hour Of
family worship they take each a family
Bible, and read in course alternately two
verses, just as they did when they read
with their children. Then they sing the
old hymns, though the voices are not so
sweet or the pipes of the organ as perfect
as formerly. They live, it is plain, from
incidental remarks, in the past, the pres
ent and the future.
There are certain things that they sell
dom speak Of, even to one another. They
keep all the playthings which their chill
dren once used, ostensibly for their
grandchildren when they come to visit
them; but the forms they see playing
with them are those of their own dear
children who have gone before them, but
who left their image in their memory
The little books, and even the little shoes
of their bright and early dead ones, are
carefully laid up, and though they never
speak OF them, each knows that they are
precious mementoes of the past ~
But see how careful they are of each
other. The fires of passion have all
burned out, the beauty and freshness of
life have all passed away, and the rich
harvests of time have all been garnered
But no lovers could be more tender to-
wards each other. If either is absent,
the time is anxiously measured till the
return and the footstep on the threshold
may not be elastic as it returns, yet the
ear that hears it and the heart that feels
it are awake. They seem to understand
each other thoughts without words, and
each feels that life would not be life with
out the other. They think over the past
much and often, and realize that they
have together toiled, and together strug-
gled and shared all the burdens and sor-
rows of life. Every memory of the past
is equally vivid to each. They don't say
much about their separation, 80 certain
to leL-e one or the other so desolate, but
it is plain they think much about it and
from hints occasionally dropped, it is
evident that each is contriving and plan
ming how the other can be made comfort.
able when thus left alone, each expecting
to be first to die.
And when they think of the future,
even carrying their thoughts into
Heaven, they seem to have an unex-
pressed fear that Heaven will not be all
that they desire, if they can there be TO
each other no more than old acquain-
tanees. 1t seems as if they must carry
something of the tender feeling which
the sorrows and experience Of life have
given them, into that world, and as If
they must 20 hand in hand forever.
And the thought that they must soon
separate, and the one must be left to
walk Rlone in the rooms, sit alone at the
old table, kneel alone at the altar of
God, 90 alone to the house of God, gives
an inexpressible tenderness to their
treatment Of each other. They never,
even in the days Of youthful courtship,
lived more in each othsr's thoughts than
now.
Time has covered the rough places of
life over which they have walked, and
years have healed the wounds they have
suffered, leaving only scars; but the
rough winds Of life have only bowed
their heads, and you see not the sturdy
oak, bnt the soft weeping willow. Mem
ory brings up pictures OF the past, some
of them recalling sorrows heavy as bu-
manity can bear, but mellovs them down
in her golden light and hope comes
still, not to sing Of earth, as she once did,
but Of Heaven and the ever-Opening fu-
ture. And faith, showing nothing TO the
eye, contrives to exert her powers over
them by mingling her voice in the songs
Of hopel
They will not be with each other long
bat while they DO live, no part Of their
life has been more foil Of tender regard,
genuine respect, unaffected kindncss OF
deeper love The young world cannot |
the old folks " bot never /
60 into their dwelling without seeing /
some Of the most purified. refined and /
exalted traits Of human nature, which 10 /
me are inimitEbly beautiful And ii /
What j have said shall lead ny reader 10 /
feel more kindly towards those who are
ID around rs % the old felix's" l shall /
have gained ny bhieof iu writing Let
ne add that fev things are mons repu[ /
i've 20 q refined heart than 20 have such /
! couple as have described called The 1
"a fr1ta LIZ wnv Of derision.