Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-06-25
eRANDMoTnER.s woolNe.
PART I.
Musing BY the f1re,)

ana am glad It's sO. she said;
I've worked SO hard. from sun to sun,
10 earn the clothes and daily bread
Gor all the children God has given
Tnat begin to long for heaven.
Each one brought care and work and love;
murmured atmy helpless brood;
nut when their father went above
That these Should mind a me Of the dead,
And, Struggling, was comforted.
n spun and wove and knit and sewed
For all the ladies of the town.
And saw my children neatly clothed,
Though had scarce q shilling gown.
never cared how coarse my food,
30 they had what was plain but good.
sand so the years went swiftly on;
The baby was too frail to raise;
And then death took my eldest son.
The boy hoped would cheer my days.
Till all my work below was done;
But, then, We can not judge Gods ways.
"And five are left; John went away
And now Is rich, hear them tell;
Ald Harry married young: they say
A stylish wife becomes him well;
wonder would she smile on me,
Who have been bred in poverty.
"And Wilbur, I am proud he's mine;
He breaches from the blessed word;
love to hear those truths divine
From lips offered to the Lord.
And Chloe, she is my sowing seed
BESIDE all waters. so to feed
All hearts that of the Christ have need.
"And Jane. she has noble soul,
Aud does for me what none have done;
But yet she does not seek the goal
Her father sought, and early won.
Her little ones are very dear,
But oftentimes their noisy cheer
Makes me desire another sphere
They We built me rooms beside their home,
And made them cheerful as they could;
And yet feel as though. alone,
In more than widowhood stood.
They have the present. the past,
And both the future, at the last
PART ii.
(She has loverD
The grandmother smoothed her thin gray
hair;
.These rooms grow pretter," she said.
And the fire in the CRATE has cheerful air;
I'm younger in heart and head.
sPerhaps l am foolish and childish, too,
,. 70 let him come at an age like mine,
with his hair so white, and his years but few
Before we shall cross the line.
Hes buried the wife of his youth so long;
HIS sons have left him: alone he stands;
We are weights in our weakness while they
are strong;
We could stay each others hands.
Last night he told me his love for me;
Perhaps IT was not with the fire of youth
But these wrinkied cheeks. in my ecstacy,
Grew flushed at his words of truth.
The wants of the heart are undimmed by
age;
We pine for lack of a constant friend,
For human love is Gods heritage,
And We need it to the end.
And janet wonder what she will say
To mother low ng so late in life.
And his children. too. VIII they scorn the lay
When he brings him home wife?
81 would be a mother. as best might
They have no need for mothers care
Already my life seems wondrouS bright
forget its wear and tear;
Pcrchance he will come to-night!'
The grandmother smoothcd her thin gray
hair; '
These rooms grow prettier. far" she said
And the fire in the CRATE has cheerful air
Am too old to wed?'
PART III.
(Again musing by the fire)
Only dream, as when a soul awaketh
from the bright Wis onS of "A bleSs.xA>sIeel
Aud ftuds thaA. n Old s1a-a< sorrow urtak
ETH
Athrart its hopes, with resistless sweep
'Dnly an ignis-fatuus DER the meadows,
Iuring one on to an endless tread:
Only CLEAN of sunshine with the shadows
which makes them darker when the light
: has fled.
I'VE thought to be so happy with each other
but Jane and all her brothers scorned il So
They might have been more tender to thei,
mother,
. Had death robbed them, like her, SO Ions
ago.
His children, having all that this worlt
offers
OF wealth and goodly home and fertil,
mead,
Forbade the marriage lest their weu8IIo,
Golfers
BE lowered any for another's need
STRANGE that age finds us still our children
serving;
We bear them, labor for them. do their vii!
Through their deserving and their undeserv
ing,
Gray -haired and wrinkled, we are parents
still.
'Tbey may be weary with our long DELAYING
And wonder death does not come or apacc
he Will not tarry; we are waiting-praying-
Perchance the old, in Heaven, viii have ,
place.
Sarah X. Bolton, in Chicago Inter Ocean,