The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-17
THE DESERTED HOMESTEAD.
BY BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR.

THE DESERTED HOMESTEAD.
BY BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR.
II twenty summer times ago
walked along this country road,
Zen life and love were both in blow
And none would dream it ever showed,
aw schoolma'am coming down,
ripping hair was golden brown
aw her firm and slender hand,
aw her foot prints in the sand,
pair of rhymes in dainty type
hat brought to mind the old Gazette
lere village poets used to pipe
me cricket corner where they set
little letters, chirps of song
lose lives were only cricket long
read them off, as children tell
poem by the nonpareil.
lrned highwayman as l stood
'eneath these oaks now golden g,own,
d cried, as ruder robbers would,
Thy life and treasures are my own!"
allied her with loves surprise
md saw my answer in her eyes.
zee was busy with flower,
\ bird sang low from maple bower, -:
old white school-house swarmed witt
noise,
We needed nor the Babel rout.
girls knew better than the boys
What meant the meeting there without,
d smiling stood and watched me hold
Ter hand in mine and ran and told
d some were mothers long ago,
IND some caught out in early snow!
ain l walk the road and meet
mother schoolma'am coming down,
10 was not born when did greet
Ter sister of the golden crown.
I'D this story to the girl,
d something like Twins pearl
up the eye1id OF the child,
2 flashed it off and then she smiled,
ere should have been bow, thought
hat sunshine and tina. drop of rain
d then the present was forgot
md persisted days returned again.
is thoughtful sad September day
slowly worn itself away,
sun and moon are face to face,
VINES in strength, she gains in grace.
not day, it is not night.
lere are the feet that came and went?I
re stands the homestead still and white
and silent as monument.
curtained windows in eclipse,
white door fast as marble lips,
yer before we're they denied,
summer flowers and hours outside.
-oug Ii tides of fragrance always sweep,
n warmth and light it has no part,
ere in the daytime sound asleep
md empty as a broken-heart!
ewillOw fountain swings and SWeryes
d filings its emerald spray in curves
ange since the loved no longer stay,
las not wept itself away!
V.
re round the house the brown paths ran
70 litchened gate and stoop and we'll,
Il forty years since they began
TO warm when busy bare feet fell,
e wilderness redeems its own,
it'll clover leaves and plantain strOwn,
old meadows dimmed and erased,
e surge has washed them out at last,
e dry old grindstone, crank bereft,
Worn like pebble in brook,
ID little but the axle left.
Stands idle in that shady nook.
|, lusty times when naked arms
at conquer deserts into farms,
ound off the sickle's edge otwire
id sparks of wit and sparks of fire,
ID sythes swung down from apple limb
ere set upon its ripping rim.
ne are the arms that turn the crank,
I'd gone the stroke through grasses rank!
e showers have washed the colored light
from rainbows down upon the place,
e phloxes flame in red and white,
The pansies in their violet grace,
e jaunty jaybirds azure flash,
! e rubies OF the mountain ash,
: le dear old astor's gay cockade,
-, <1,o1v, Ia
he yellow daisies priln ana clean,
THE orange butternut that pays
golden leaves upon the green
is early dues to autumn days
a these 10 weary heart can vile
Like loving smiles from loving eyes
at light the Lords last holy mile
70 perfect peace and Paradise!
/, Aood.wood wreck, old cider mill!
With apple cheese and amber flow.
here used to gather round the rill
The boys and bees OF long ago.
wv sweet new apples make the air,
fragrance in a maiden's hair!
[ see their consultations gleam
Like planets in tairy's dream,
If the Maker should baptize
CHI new born star He babe arise,
In rare perfume, and all should shine
With aromatic light divinel
- silence standing on this brink
Of desolation and decay
wv in this amber cup drink
TO the dear dead and gone away!
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
ANIDYL ON THE MOSELLE.
1t was evening in the ancient town I
:icr; the Angclus was ringing dow
ON the great fortress-like Dom the Ii
carts and stalls had vanished out (
markct.place and the carved saint
ustered in the fountain, smiled benignl
the setting sun. Old women in s.rane
addresses, beads and books in ham
lssed in and out of St. Gondolphus