The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-12-20
THE OLD FARM BARN.


The dearest gifts to all that live
Are the quiet joys our memories give.
The future we know not; but safe is the past;
And the first we loved we love to the last
The image undimmed, we hold it more dear.
AS the days disappoint us from year to year.
The joy long gone, though never so small
compared with joys present, is worth them
all
What we thought, would be substance, ar
rived-tis shade,
And too late is learned the mistake we have
made.
SO it comes my heart has a rainy day
In the old farm barn, with the children at
play.
The naples look on with bright eyes in their
The clear drops drip from the swallow-built
caves,
The chickens find shelter, the cisterns fill;
Ihere 8 buster whirr from the wheels of
the mill,
Tho pond is all dImples from shore to shore,
And the miller smiles back from his place in
Slow mists from the mountains come drift
ing down,
The houses show fainter afar in the town,
The gust sweeps mp, dies away again.
Then, loud and fast, the rap-tap of the rain.
For all yonder sun It's my hearts rainy ddy
In the old farm barn, with the children at
play.
The oxen chew slowly, with sleepy eyes,
The sheep huddle up into half their size,
The dazed calves stare at the grim, dingy
Old Nancy looks soberly out from her stall,
Tiger Puss crouches close TO the mouse's
-'ureac eCtssi'Jsa. g...."0-ssflly bone that he
stole
Over all is the roof and the dance of the rain
Not "A sorrowing thought, not touch OF pain
The old farm barn is so dusk and still
The very spiders sleep on its window-sll.
Ills the hush, the browse of the rainy day,
ana IN leaping again from the beam 10 the
hay.
IL, n q
Hist, witty Ben, with the chipmunk facet
This way, broad Bill, with the trousers wide
Come, stumbling Tom, with the big toe tied
The scramble is made up the shuky stairs;
HatleSS and breathlcss we stand In pairs
Bawling Bob gives the word, and down we 20
From the cObwebbcd beam to the NOV below
Ihe sport is forbidden; that doubles the Zest;
More risks than the damage to breeches OF
Aha! he's no coward gets sprout to-day
For bliss of the leap from the beam TO the
hay!
But stay, brave boys! Are these all there
WeTeS
That othcr-how shall mention herr
The beautiful one, so gentle, shy,
With blue of distance sutrusing her eye;
The golde~-haired girl that always came
And stood in our midst like a shape of flame
Is that she, there, by the cradle now,
with the sunken cheek and the bloodless
brOw2
Is it her voice in the still night heard:
Her voice Once blithe as the voice of bird!
Can she have so changed since yesterday,
When she laughed as we lcuped from the
beam to the hay?
o. the way Of the world, its worry and
strife
The wrestlc the battle that mon call "life,"
The smiling and weeping, the up and down
OF the sons and daughters of country and
town.
On us all, at times, may the noon sun shine,
May warm to your heart. may warm to mine
But question if ever a hue will be
A smile of land, glance of the sea-
AS dear as the mist when the fresh showers
fell
On the old hOme-spot we loved so well
No, the heart will 90 back to the rainy day
To the old farm barn and the children at
play.
John Vance Cheney, in " Y. Independent.