Year: 1869

There is a strange, sweet hush in these
The early days of fall, ere yet the frost
Has come to touch and tinge the rich deep green
OF summer foliage with those brighter hues
That, for a season, so delight the eye.
The verdant earth still glows with summer s kiss,
And still the cattle seek the cooling shade;
Yet there's change-a calm. The joyful birds,
That through the spring and early summer made
Each tree and grove with music eloquent,
Have winged their flight TO other cimes, where


spring


Hath perpetual dwelling, and the constant hum
Of insect life around the cricket's drone,
The locusts cry of Pharaoh, bringing down
b To this far age the memory of him
To'whom twas seat in iudgment-all the count


less sounds


That fill country solitude with life,
Seem stiled and Distant even the wanton breeze,
Forrctful of its froics in the early spring,
STAYS listlessy amid the boughs, as though
II were a toll 10 lift the broad, thick leaves.
The stataly corn, that for few short weeks
Swayed IN, NE summer air its tasseled head.
Now yellow, ready to be gathered, stands,
Giving fair promise of harvest rich.
The delicate flowers that round our pathway


sprung,


While yet the year was young, have vanished


now


And in their stead the stronger dahia rears
Its many-tinted blooms. Chrysanthemum buds
Are bursting into beauty ; and in distant glades



CLEANS like flame within the autumn woods.
1t is the very glory of the year;
And nature, weared, pauscs to enjoy
Her perfect work.


The season minds of one who stands in strength
OF perfect manhood one whose early days
Were spent in sowing for his later life
A goodly seed. With anxious care he plucked
Each Roxious weed, that might have checked the


plant


lie wished should flourish. Carefully he watch


cd,


Nor once forgot blessing from on high
To crave on all his work. Nor did he slight
The blessings given him then each joyous


song,


Inaudibie, save to the quicker sense of those
Whose spirits are not numbed by frequent griefs,
lie herd and treasured. Every tiny flower
That blossomed at his side, he noted well,
Nor lost its fragrance; and in visions oft,
Even now, he hears those long gone melodies,
And memories of those faded blossoms come
With surprising sweetness to his heart.
So was he fitted to endure the toll
OF middle life; and as each flowcret faded,
lie but looked onward with a firmer faith
Unto another spring, when they should bloom
With greater beauty, in brighter land.
Nor did he tire in scattering blessings round
On all he met, and now their blessings rest
With tenfold richness on his happy head.
SO lived noble man and now ere age
Has taken from his manhood one bright grace
lie stands in his perfected vigOr far
Above his fellows; goodness made him great
Above the petty striics and moils of the earth
calm from heaven attends his steps below
And though the joys that Others planted for


him


Have faded long ago, the plants he reared
Are blooming brightly; wanting il is true,
The fragrance that loving hand impartS
To all its acts but stronger TO endure
The chilling blasts of autumn. ihan' the sweet
But fragile flowers that hoomei in earlier days.
Who would not wish, if choice were given him


then,
To die, ere from his side the winter winds
Have swept these last bright blooms; ere yet the


tears


OF many griefs have dimmed his once bright eye,
And choked his voice with sorrows uttcrances
Oh ! who would wish to struggle shivcring on
Through life's dark winter, when his joys are


fed


And he alone must meet its bowling blasts?
Yet wintry storms are often sent in life
BY Gods wise dealing, ere the sumner fruit
Has reached perfection and the autumn flowers
Bloom not; and to the sorrowing heart there


comes


A winter, such as age can never bring.
SO does the All-wise often teach the heart
To lean in Him alone. And MS we see
A genial winter, when the cooling breeze
Has checked the heat through summers long


bright days,
So he whose buds of promise God has plucked,
Lives but for Him alone, and scatters round
Blessings innumerabe on all the world.


Port Penn Del.