St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1879-02-22
4 DREAM OF THE YEAR.
Z. II eaw q vision in my sleep,
That gave my spirit strengthtto sweep
g down the gulfot Timei'' -

Ihat saySs my splrTsti m serfengthto sweep
p. Campbell
We have more dreams awake than |
when we sleep. A large part Of every |
ones life is passed amid the stuff that
dreams are made of. At times we hardly |
know whether we have been asleep or
not, vision Of past and future appears
and then vanishes away.
It was in one of these moods between
waking and sleeping, before 1i,ing on the
morning of the first day of the year, that
this vision passed before ms, with all
the vividness of the sun, and left its i'm
press so that can tell you what I saw
aud heard. -,
was walkingon the bank of deep,
broad, silent river, flowing onward to-
ward the sea. The stream was covered
with vessels of various names and rig;
all going with the current !; making pro-
gress, some more, some less, but all get
ting on. Some of these ships were so
near that could, see the men on board,
and with little care I could discover
what each was set TO do, from the mas.
ter. to the cabin boy. There was
enough for all, and each vessel kept on
its course, when every man did his work
faithfully and well. There was some
bad steering and slovenly handling of
the sails, and here and there captain
was tipsy and things were out of sorts,
and one ship would run into another or
get aground and I saw that the neglect
of any one to do his duty, made mischief
that brought trouble to all on board.
Before me in the path stood man
whose white hair and wrinkles told me
OF his great age, and, even if he had not
carried a scythe over his shoulder, I
would easily have known him as Father
Time. He said to me in firm and manly
tones ...-.. a.,
whittier goest thou z" !. H.
"With the current" I replied; "all
things seem tending to the sea; some 60
by water, SONS by land, and suppose
weare all going the same way"
s'Turn," he said, 'and 60 back with
me on the path thou hast travelled"
We reversed our steps, and he spoke
to me of the path of human life; it is
often called % journey, a pilgrimage
it should rather be spoken of as q
place, a house, field, q battle, a service;
he said it is wrong to think of life as q
sort of space or distance between two
goals, a race to be run and then over; q
voyage to be made and then the port tc
be enjoyed, and, as we walked side by
eide, he discourssd to me of tke.duties Of
life, of the works that each man has te
do, and, neglecting which, he makes 8
failure. We came, in our walk, upon
wrecks of vessels stranded and rotten on
the shore; by the side Of, the pathway
and now and then in the very road itself
were the remnants of broken engines
and the scattered members Of beautiful
machinery and the bones of human beings
lying in the grass BY the Wayside
Puzzled with the sight Of these things
not one of which, had noticed when
pursuing my journey alone and with
the current of the stream, I looked W
with wonder 70 my patriarchial ..guide
and asSed: s. ss5sz..
"What are these wrecks that streV
the road ~
Lost opportunities" were the only
words. that felIfrom his lips; but they
fell as from out Of the sky, 90 far off ane
80 solemn did they sound. in my ear. !.
was silent, awe-struck and anxious, for
faint suspicion came to my mind tina
this was in part my work, and these ruin
were memorials of my neglect, ii nothin,
worse. And | repeated his words in
tone Of respectful inquiry:
Lost opportunities Whose ap
what, tell me, my counselor and friend.
He paused In. his walk, and removin
from his shoulder the scythe, he reste
ON IL, and began:
ave have gone back far enough I
learn the lesson of the day. The distanl
we hare walked is in time oneyear. Th
wrecks and ruins we have passed, an
those now In sight, are the resolution
ade, the purposes formed, the worl
II, the chances enjoyed, the NEAR
ed, the mischief done, deeds le1
4, friendships lost, Sabbath
uths run to waste, Weeh
idled away, hours spent !
of these lost emporium
skeleton on the patti
TIo1ss+ 4l,n