Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-09-18
TROSCORE AND TEN.


OF the pew-checkered. square old meeting
house.
Through the high window, could see anj
hear
The far crows cawing in the forest boughs.
The earnest preacher talked of Youth ant
Age:
life is a book. whose lines are fitting fast
Each word moment, every year page,
Ill, leaf by leaf, we quickly turn tine last
Even while he spoke, the sunshine's witness
crept
by many fair and many a grizzled head,
Some dropping heavily, as if they slept.
over the unspeied minutes as they sped.
a boy Of twelve, with fancies fresh and
strong
Who found the text no cushion of repose,
Who deemed the shortest sermon far TOO long,
My thoughts were In the treetops with the
crows,
Or farther still scared. upon the back
OF white clouds sailing in the shoreiess blue
I'LL he recalled me from their dazzling trac <
To the old Westinghouse and high-backed
pew.
"To eager childhood. ms il turns the leaf
How long and bright the unread page ap-
But 10 the aged. looking back. how brief
How brief the tale OF half hundred years.
Over the drowsy pews the preachers word
Resounded, as he paused to wipe his brows:
seem Ia hear IL now. as then heard
ke-echoing In the hollow meeting-housc.
sOur youth Is gone, and thick and thicker
come
The hoary years. like tempest-driven SHOWS;
Files fast flies last. life's wasting pendulum IN,
And ever faster as IL shorter grows.
My mates sat wondering YEARLY the while
How long before his a. LASTLY would come in,
Or giancing at the girls across the aisle.
Or IN some distant corner playing pin.
But in that moment to my inward eyes
A sudden window opened, and caught
Through dazzling riffs a glimpse of other
The dizzy deeps, the blue abyss of thought
Beside me sat my father, grave and gray,
And old. so old. at twoscore years aud teni
said. I" I will remember him this day,
When l am city, if live till then.
81 will remember all see and hear,
Ny very thoughts, and how life seems TO
me,
This Sunday morning fin my thirteenth
Hos viii ii seem when am old as he?
"what is the work that shall find to do?
Shall he worthy of his honored name?
Poor and obscure! or will my dream come
TrTie,
My secret dream of happiness and famey''
All me, the years betwixt that hour and this,
The ancient Westinghouse has passed away,
And in Its place a modern edilce
Invites the well-dressed worshiper to-day.
With it have passed the aforementioned
faces:
The old are gone, the boys are gray-haired
men;
They. too, are scattered, strangers I'LL their
And here am at twoscore years and ten,
How strangely. wandering here beside the sea, |
The voice of crows in yonder forest boughs |
a cloud. Il sabbath bell. bring back to me
That morning in the gaunr old meeting |
house.
And oasis amid the desert years,
That golden Sunday smiles as then it
smiled: /
see the veperated head: through tears
see myself, that far-oH wondering child.
The pews, the preacher and the whitewashed
An imaSed look, with careless children
turning
Its awful pages-i remember all:
MY very thoughts, the questioning and
The haunting faith, the shadowy superstition
Ihat ! was somehow chosen, the special
of Powers that led me through life's change
fai vision.
Spirits and Influences of earth and air.
In curious pity of myself grown wise.
think what then was and dared to hope
Aud how my poor achievements satirize
The boys brave dream and happy horo-
scope.
To see the future flushed with morning fire.
Rosy with tanners, bright with becAouing
spears. /,
Fresh fields inviting courage and desire-
TINS Is the glory OF our youthful years.
To feel the pettiness of prizes won,
Win all oar vast ambition: To behold
20 much attempted and so little done g. 4
This IS ihe bitterness Of growing old.
more I
For triumphs which, till won, appear So I;
sweet. 4