LESSONS OF THE WATERMILL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2103, 16 March 1920, Page 4

LESSONS OF THE WATERMILL.

Listen to'the watermill ’ Through the livelong day! How the clicking of its wheel Wears the hours away! , Languidly the autumn wind Stirs the greenwood loaves; From the Held the reapers sing. Binding up the sheaves. And a proverb haunts my mind— As a spell is cast — “The mill cannot grind With the water that is past.” Autumn winds revive no more. Leaves that once are shed; And the sickle cannot, reap Corn once gathered. And the ruffled stream Hows on, Tranquil, deep and still, Never gliding back again To the watermill. Truly speaks’the proverb old, With a meaning vast — “The mill cannot grind With the water that is past." Take a lesson to thyself, Loving heart and true; Golden years are Meeting by Youth is passing, too. Learn to make the most of life, Lose no happy day; Time will never bring thee back Chances swept away; Leave no tender word unsaid, Love while life shall last; “Tiie mill cannot grind With the water that is past.” Work while yet the daylight shines, Man of strength and will; Mover does the streamlet glide Useless by the mill. Wait not till to-morrow’s sun Beams upon the way; All that thou (must call thine own Lives in thy “to-day." Lower and intellect and health May not always last — “The mill cannot grind With the water that is pa.M.” Oh, the wasted hours of life That have drifted by! Oh, the good that might have been, Lost without a sigh. Love that we might once have saved By a single word, Thoughts conceived, but novel’ penned, Perishing unheard. Take the proverb to thine heart, Take and hold it fast, “The mill cannot grind With (he water that is past." • —'Sarah Doudney, “Psalms of Life.”