National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-17
TO GRACE HITCHCOCK.

Ial
My dear little Grace, it will make you feel better
To get from your papa . nice rhyming letter;
To feel and to know that mid labor and care
Exacting, absorbing, IS you are aware
He finds time to pause and send over the sea,
A message of love-words from home unto thee;
To tell YOU my lone life here's ever the same,
In mornings Departments my active work claim,
Attuelye In the s. nate always must walt.
Where goes on the dull, dreary, ne'er-eadlng de-
bate;
There decide Gas God gives my eOn'ciense clear
light
What measures are wrong and what measures are
right;
There to do what can for our own dear home State
And work for her interests early and late.
Then at six to my dinner at wilIard's, you know,
And from that to my desk work for evening go,
And there midnight finds me at last leTt alone,
The visitors. business men, loungers all gone:
Then still work awhile. aud than my heart turns
Away to the East, wheT e the Eastern star burns,
And shines down upon you, my little home band,
Away, far away, In a strange, foreign land;
And then, weary and worn-lonely heart-achIng
head
lend my days struggle and hasten to bed.
To say that each morning when wakened to life
He utters q prayer for his lone absent wife,
And the dear little children he counts-one, two,
three,
CHow irksome their Absence grows daily TO be?)
Little birds, that have from the 'home perch''
to rest
And to stop for the present in snug Baden nest,
Till their wings have grown strong, and their
hearts have grown brave,
And they fly gai.y back on the snow-crested wave.
Forever to sing in the ''green boughs" of home,
And no more fly away amid strangers to roam,
But to help fither-brd food on earth to prepare.
And with him to enjoy all the pleasures in air.
To tell you that always whenever he meets,
In shop or in Senate, or in crowded streets,
Some gay, little miss, OF age like your own,
He watches her, studies her. sees If she's grown
To be better, or brighter, or stronger, may be,
Than his own darling Grace, that's now over the
To say that he trembles sometimes to reflect
How much from your future he dares to expect;
How cultured and elegant, gentle and kind,
Adorned with all graces of manner and mInd,''
| With a heart ever true, and a hand ever strong,
BraYely doing lIfe's duty as time moves along,
You will cheer the lone hours, and make joyou!
| the heart
OF your papa, who then will be playing the part
or ''the old man. in 'Ilfe's solemn tragedy
| while
You, full of youth and of vlgor, can Joyously smIl
At Old Time, with his ''hour-glass'' and with hi!
| ''dread sickIe,''
And challenge Dame Fortune, (she's often callet
| hcklc.)
Tais-thls i, the future my fancy Oft brings:
Tats-this is the song that my heart often sings.
| To say that hear, with a heart full OF Joy,
or your heath, of your progress, the way you EN-
ploy
Your slime and your talents''-so that day by day
You grow ''better and wiser'' as time flies away.
That you no ''6aaterfy,' floating in air;
For the present no labor, the future no care,
But the bee, that while slipping from every flower
AL that flowers precious sweetness, In each sum.
| hour,
Is earnest in purpose and faithful in care,
Her duty to do and her store to prepare
For the dark, gloomy days, sure to come at thu lest
When the sunshine gives place to the wild, rushing
| blast,
When the flowers are dead and the summer Is gone
And you meet life's stern duties alone-dtL alone.
|
AMI now, my dear Grace, I fear 1t is time
To bring to an end this long letter in rhyme.
Hoping Soon for an answer, sweet, loving and brigh
And with love to you= brothers, God bless yoI
Good night! P.W. H.
WksuIyGToN, April s I74,