Ladies

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 5, 29 April 1893, Page 12

Ladies

FATHER AND SON. “ I must look to the sheep in the fold, See that the cattle are fed and warm, So, Jack, tell mother to wrap you well, You may go with me over the farm. Though the snow is deep and the weather cold, You are not a baby at six years old. Two feet of snow on the hillside lay, But the sky was as blue as June; And father and son came laughing home When dinner was ready at noon— Knocking the snow from their weary feet, Rosy and hungry and longing to eat. “ The.snow was deep,” the farmer said, “ That I feared I could scarce get through,” The mother turned with a pleasant smile—- “ Then what could a little lad do ? ” “ I trod in my father’s steps,” said Jack ; “ Wherever he went I kept his track.” The mother looked in the father’s face, And a solemn thought was there; The words had gone like a lightning flash To the seat of a nobler care : “ If he treads in my steps, then day by day, How carefully I must choose my way.” “ For the child will do as the father does, And the track that I leave behind, If it be firm, and clear and straight, The feet of my son. v;\U £nd. - He’llpseAu in his father’s steps and say, “ s l < m right, for this was my father’s way.’ Oh ! fathers leading in Life’s hard road, Be sure of the steps you take; Then the sons you love, when gray-haired men, Will tread in them still for your sake. When gray-haired men to their sons will say, . “ We tread in our father’s steps to-day.”