Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-03-26
BEFORE THE CURFEw.
1829-1882.

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
Not bed-ti yet The night-winds blow,
The stars are out-full we'll we know
The nurse is on the stair,
With hand Of ice and cheek Of snow,
And frozen lips that whisper low,
/" Come, children, it IL time to 60 49, a#
y NY peacetul couch to SHARE" ~
No years Z wakeful heart can tire;
Not bedtime yeti Come stir the fra
And warm your dear old hands:
Kind mother earth we love 80 well
Has pleasant stories yet to tell
Before we hear the curfew bell:
Still glow the burning brande.
Not bedtime yet We long to know
What wonders time has yet to show,
What unborn years shall bring;
What ship the Arctic pole shall reach,
What lessons Science waits to teach,
What sermons there are left to preach.
What poems yet to sing.
What next? we ask; and is 1t true
The sunshine falls on nothing new;
As Israsps king declared :?
Was ocean plowed with harnessed nre9
Did Tarshish telegraph to Tyre
How Hiram would have stared!
And what If shebas curious queen,
Who came to see-and to be SEEN
Or something new to seek,
And swooned, as ladies sometimes do,
Atsights that thrilled her through and through,
had heard, as che was coming to,
locomotive shrek,
And seen q rushing railway train
As she looked out along the plain
From David's lofty tower
A mile Of smoke that blots the sky
And blinds the eagles as they dy
Behind the cars that thunder by
score OF leagues an hour!
See to my Eat les1 respond
This little slumbering hre-tpped wand
One touch-it bursts In fame
Steal me portrait from the sun
One look-and lol the picture donel
Are these old tricks, King Solomon,
We lying moderns claim7
Could you have spectroscoped star!
If both these mothers at your bar.
The cruel and the mild,
Inc young aud tender, old and tough,
Had said, "Divde-you're right though rough"-
Did cd Judea know enough
To etherize the child /?
These births of time our eyes have eeen,
With but few brief years bet seen;
What wonder if the text,
For other ages doubtless true,
For coming years will never do
Whereof we all should like few,
II but to See what next.
If such things have been. such may be
Who would not like to live and see
II Heaven may SO Ordain-
What waits uudreamed of. yeti store,
1ue waves LQat roll 1OreYermOr0
On LIES long beach may cast ashore
From out the mist-clad main
Will earth to pagan dreams return
To find from misery's painted urn
That all save Hope has flown
OF Book and Church and Priest bereft;
The Rock of Ages vainly cleft,
Lies compass gone, its anchor left,
Left-lost- In depths unknown?
Shall Faith the trodden path pursue
The cruG GnsatG wearers knew
Who sleep with folded hands,
Where, like naked, Hdless eye,
The staring Nile rolls wondering by
Those mountain slopes that climb the sky
Above the drifting sands?
Or shall nobler faith return,
Its fanes purer gospel learn,
With boiler anthems ring,
And teach us that our transient creeds
We're but the perishable seeds
OF harvests sown for larger needs
The ripening years snail bring?
Well, let the present do it's best.
We trust our Maker for the rest,
AS on our way we plod;
Our souls, full dressed in deshly SUITS
Love, Dir and sunshine, flowers and fruits,
Tho daisies better than their roots
Beneath the grassy sod.
Not bedtime yet ths full-blown flower
OF all the year-this evening hour
With friendships fame is bright;
Lug Bull - e"eeG, tuo heavens are I0lf,
Though fields are brown and woods are bare,
And many a JOY Is left to share
Before we say Goodnight
And when, our cheerful evening past,
The nurse, long waiting, comes at last,
Ere on her lap we lie
In wearied natures sweet repose,
At peace with all her waking foes,
Our lips shall murmur, ere they close,
Goodnight and not Goodbye!
Atlantic.