THE EMPTY PLACE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 224, 12 September 1876, Page 4

THE EMPTY PLACE.

[By Ada Cambridge, in Sunday Magazine.} Bright faces come and go, fair shapes L'ance up and down the wall; A presence in the crowded room Takes precedence oi all. We see it night and day, howe'er, By shrine or shadow crost — A little vacant spot, wberefrom One little face is lost The sound of music swells and falls, And laughter fills our ears — A silence, hollowed oue of life, Is sl! our spirit hears. That silence, like a hush of praver, Can drown the loudest speech, And, piercing sharp throagh laugh and song, Our inmost soul can reach. No thunder of the outer world, No ourning rage of pain, No paesion-atorms ol love or grief Tbat beat on heart and brain, Beat down with such constraining strength The vital forces there, As that dull, soundless ache of loss Whioh lonely mourners bsar. O Httle garments, in the drawer, "With such precision spread ! O little chair against the wall ! 0 little cradle-bed, Uncurtained in the silent room, And piliowlesß and cold I 0 mother's arms and tender hands Tbat have no babo to hold 1 We know full well the worth and wea'th Of which we are bereft; But where are word-) wherewith to tell The emptiness that's left! Wherewith to span that shoreless void, Sound its unfathomed de ps, And picture to the common sense The saured thing it keeps.