Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-01-22
THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE.

Once on time Mrs. Abbie Chase,
Iolbrook sent TO her cousin, j. n. irish
ne following lines:
"Again climb the old South HILL
Stands there the time-stained school hous'
still
Unchanged, its windows blankly stare.
The walls their widowed clapboards wear,
And, rusting In its ancient < doves,
The noisy dOOr-latch stifliy moves,
As when we pressed IL. years ago,
To cross its threshold, broad and low.
"In rows the vacant benches stand.
And, frescOed Ger In school.boy hand,
The plastered walls dis6gured rise,
AS when they met my childish eyes;
And, fronting all, the masters throne,
In state majestic, stands alone;
Less awful now than when we heard,
For saucy prank, the threatening word
From him, who tried with rod and rrown,
TO keep our bubbling spirits down.
81 see a raw of sunlight fall
Across a dingy blackboard tall;
Perchance the same you scrubbed on
when We were Young, NV cousin John;
And when you traced, with mystic sign,
The algebraic problem fine;
While with trembling fingers wrought
At sums whose meanings I'd forgot.
The work is wrong; go take your seat
"Ah! Problems harder far than those
Do years mature TO me disclose;
Aud stern experience proves less mild
Than he who child me as child.
In all the place Is silence drear;-
A footstep seems an alien here.
OF all the sounds our voices made,
The faintest ecHo cen Is laid
Deep buried In the wide abyss
That parts that far-oG time from this.
al call across the vanished years;
My ear no voice In answer hears;
And yet start In sudden thrill,
To see the empty seats refill
With girls and boys, fresh faced and fair,
Their school books scattered here and there
While pencils lie beside old states
All covered DER with sums and dates.
With eyes cast down and serious looks,
Some con their lessons from their books,
awhile others In a row sedate
The masters questions seem to walt.
A rosy spectre of myself.
A school girl, restless rs an elf,
With careless glance looks up at me,
And IN the look no thought i see
That coming years have power to change
The girl into this woman strange.
"Here sitteth one, a phantom fair,
With tender eyes and nut brown hair;
With outstretched arms and longing cry
To clasp her close | vainly try.
Alas, she melteth In my grasp
My arms but empty ar enclasp.
All. mel know she sleeping Hes,
And well know from her dear eyes
No tender glance my own shall meet,
Until her angel self greet.
ooh, ghosts of days, lived long ago,
You sadden met And yet know
The bud into a flower will blow,
The child into the man must grow;
And time for young hearts hath no ruth.
From the enchanted land of youth,
Whose Ugh. Il from the eastern sky,
Whose dewy fields grow never dry,
Into the arid plains of life,
Into the heat, the dust, the strife,
He hurrtes US relentless on,
Until the glorious tints OF dawn
Are merged In noontide's garish light,
And noon into the void Of night.
Goodbye, old house-dear haunt Of mine
Where young drank Of LIES new wine
May rains fall gently on thy roof.
May harsh winds keep from thee aloof,
MAY winter snow fall soft and light.
And fold thee warm in mantle white,
And Time deal gently with thee still,
While thoa dost stand on old South HILL"
ABBIE.
Buckfeld.