The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1879-01-24
s. A DREAM OF THE YEAR.

IA Dream UF The YEAH.
sss~s~-.f raw a vision in my steep.
Rsss s1zs the sa %S 'PTis iss sreasth to sweep
,-E CampceiL
We have more dreams awake than
when we sleep. A large part of every
ones life is Ipassed amid the stuff that
dreams are made of. AT times we hardly
know whether we have been asleep or
not, vision of psst and future appears
and then vanishes away.
1t was in one of these moods between
waking and sleeping, before ring on the
morning of the first day of the year, that
this vision passed before me, with all
the vividness of the sun, and left its i'm
press 80 that can tell you what saw
aud heard.
IL was walking on the bank of a deep,
broad. silent river, flowing onward to.
ward the sea. The stream was covered
with vessels of various names and rig;
AL 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 a little care l 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
lite 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 a captain
was tipsy and things were out of sorts,
and one ship would run into another or
get aground and 1 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, /
would easily have known him as Father
Time. He said to me in firm and manly
tones:
Whittier goest thou ?"
"With the current" / replied cali
things seem tending TO the sea; some go
by water, some by land, and l suppose
we are sIs1ging the same way"
he said, "snd 90 back With |
path thou hast travelled"
ersed our steps, and he spoke /
Lhe path of human life; it is
ID journey, pilgrimage;
bun id rather be spoken of as
place, s1ssse, a field, battle, service;
he said it is wrong to think of life as a
) sort of space or distance between two
0oaIa a raoa N ba r,,,, onJ +bo~ 49,. . |
voyage to be made and then the port to
be enjoyed; and, as we walked side by
eide, he discOursed to me of tie duties of
life, OF the works that each mar has to
do, and .neglecting which, he makes
failure. We came, in our walk, upon
wrecks OF vessels stranded and rotten on
!. the shore; by the side of the pathway,
s.and now and then in the very road itself,
were the remnants of broken engines,
and the scattered members of beautiful I
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 1 had noticed when
pursuing my journey alone and with
Sthe current Of the stream, | looked up
with wonder to my pstriarchial guide
snd asEed: t
"What are these wrecks that stiew |
the road ?"
sret.Lost opportunities were the only |
words that fell from his lips; but they |
fell as from out of the sky, so far off and |
30 solemn did they sound in my ear. 1
was silent, awe-struck and anxious, for a |
faint suspicion came to my mind that |
this was in part my work, and these ruins
were memorials of my neglect, if nothing
worse. And 1 repeated his words in
tone of respectful inquiry:
f'Lost opportunities Whose ard
what, tell me, my counselor and triend.''
He paused in his walk, and removing
: from his shoulder the scythe, he rested
on it, and hegan:
eve have gone back far enough to
learn the lesson OF the day. The distance
.swe have walked is in time one year. The
wrecks and ruins we have passed, and
those now in sight, are the resolutions
made, the purposes formed, the works
begun, the chances enjoyed, the means
neglected, the mischief done, deeds left
unfinished, friendships lost, SSbbaths
spoiled, months run to waste, weeks
fruitless, days idled away, hours spent in
vain each one OF these lost opportuni-
ties is a wreck and skeleton on the path
way Of thy existence. Hads't thou
done thy whole duty in this one year
over which we have walked, this shat
tered frame, now helplessly ruined,
would have been in beautiful operation,
working out a noble mission for the
good of man. Hads't thou stretched
out hand to save this struggling fellow
man, or let him lean on thy shoulder,
when he was weak and thou strong for
4 the struggle of life. he would now be by
thy SIDE, or il left behind, would be
praying for thee, as he pressed on toward
the mark. You have done well for
yourself, but no man hveth to himself,
III he live rightly. You may make a
3 long journey and at last rest from your
labors, but you viii never forget these
memorials Of lost opportunities that
g now cry to thee from the ground"
was cut to the heart by these words
Of reproof, and, in my remorse, perhaps
inspired by that terrible allusion to the
death Of Abel, 1 exclaimed: +" Am my