A SAFE INVESTMENT.
BY ETHEL LYNN. Lawyer Willet had made his investments With wonderful wisdom, they say, And the interests, dividends, coupons, Came in a flourishing way. A few waiting thousands off yonder, A few idle hundreds just here, No matter how heavy the pressure, “ Old Willet” had nothing to fear.
And being a just man, and honest, He paid to the Lord now and then Some tithes of the anise and cummin, And built with ink, paper, and pen, Some steeples, with weathercocks gilded, Some windows memorial gave, And when a worn pastor went under, He put up a shaft on his grave.
But never a prayer folded softly The gift in its sheltering wing, He never to Him gave the glory, Tho’ hasting an off"ring to bring. So he walked in his garden securely, Over Babylon buildcd a w'ell, Until, in the heart of his household, There echoed a funeral knell.
And May, little daughter beloved, Who seemed only lent from the sky, Wont back to the angels in vailing, Content to be lifted on high, With whisper and dying endeavor, To tell how the scar-blazoned Hand Was always held out to her father, She passed to the Beautiful Land.
There is failure, and turmoil, and ruin ! Men’s hearts full of fear lose their trust, And the beautiful structures, once gilded Go back to their fragments and dust,
Lawyer Willet is down in the tempest, His stocks, worthless, lie at his feet— The wave that enthroned him in Waystreet Ebbs back upon ruin complete.
Investments? Alas! they have vanished Save one—out of all, only one. ’Tis the soul of his daughter departed That whispers of happiness won. Like the stir of the wind in a blossom, There comes to his listening ear The voice of his child, saying softly, “ I am safe, father, darling, safe here.”
Ah ! the heart groping after its treasure Will find it, 1 know, by and by ; And the shadows around earthly ruin Grow golden, the Bide toward the sky.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 8, 14 October 1879, Page 4
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336A SAFE INVESTMENT. Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 8, 14 October 1879, Page 4
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