THE FIRESIDE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 49, 26 January 1884, Page 2

THE FIRESIDE.

THE OLD OFFICE DESK, Figure and figure the whole day through, From morn till aight and from year to year : Column on column mnst past review, Aud balance sheets be clear : For the wheels of commerce mast never cease, They turn and turn through the weary years, And the tired toilers find no release, ; Though lives be filled with tears. I stand by the same old desk to-day, Mustering numerals one by one, Classing and grouping the same old way, The work is never done ; It seems like a dream as I recall . The misty memories back to the light, The joys and sorrows the hopes through all That things would tarn out right. ; ' Bight, there's a strain from a splattering v pcn — . ' It.'a forty years if it's been a day — We used to use the gray goosequill then, And they'd a splashing way. It's forty years— as a slender boy, I stood by my father's side to learn The knowledge of signs experts employ, And for which tyros yearn . * Cwas my first, and t seized the pen , . With a nerrous baud and a blushing brew ■•■--■■ 'Twas diffidence caused my trembling then ; 'Tis age that makes it now, And here where the oilcloth's blistered up, The .water ran on a later day : Embarrassed, I o erturaed the cup Which held love's first banquet. And tbis spot where the bottle fell, That deluged the desk with the 'ink bloodred, ; Chanced when the messenger came to tell My baby-boy was dead. , ..: 'Tv thus I can trace; the long, long years, Noting the stains on its quaint old form, Some standing for joys and some for tears • Sunshine or passing storm. A date soratohed here means a baby bor One there means a child that died; This mark calls to my mind a man forlorn Crushed to earth m his pride, ' When the head of the house learned his loved ... ; ion , ... .. , ■ „ „.• ... For forgery lay m a fe'on'u cell And that markn the sin of^another one, A trusted one who fell." Sere, where the' marks hare an aimless trend, -■ - 1 moyed, my pen m a dreamy way, For death has.tajien m? life's best friend, Mr loving wif?,. away ;.. • And, nowj'piy dejik is the. only friend ... That binds my heart to the days gone— All else is new. As, we n,ear the end We're desolate and lon i'. It seems like a dream when I recall The misty memories^ l>Bck to the light ; The joys and sorrows, the faith through all That God sets all things rigtit ; Though the, wheelsof commerce must never cease, But turn and turn through the weary years, , :•■ i The tired toilers will God release, Up I— where there are no teaw. — ' American Counting Room. 1