SELECT POETRY.

Southland Times, Issue 668, 10 May 1867, Page 3

SELECT POETRY.

I;."-.. !tt r , A QAEOL.. „v _r ..... AJiaper shdne with feeble light "*" '"' ~ ''~' Through broken panes. A single ember Was smouldering in the- rusty-grate. Outside the snow was cold and white; And'the keen tooth of bleak December Was chattering at the garden * ;-" "■'An oaken table, old and'wonv, -^ ■■ ■_ v '■' Twojohairs, whereon a coffin rested, .••■-■ ■ '■ Made all the furniture —no more! The paper from the wall was torrij '-: * . /Great spiders every nook infested, Or swung themselves from beam to, floor. ; r ; QJwo' bodies, dead, were in the room, ' .Onejin the coffin, and one lying^- r>. TFpon the hearthstone, near ■ thte lighf, " -■' ~* •And by the taper's glare and gloom, That on the floor seemed; yet a-dying, ..,.' So quiet was the face and white. j. ; The'coffin held fljaf only son, I, .. And; he had toiled for her who reared .him, ' '"Tffl fever came and laid him low. | Arid?tEen'themothershtind hadw6n\ 'i . j... - HinJ lielp and bread. Though others feared him, ''-'" She left h^itoji~-Bhe:loved him so. J'_{\ j -JC\. And'when. he. .died, she gathered ~ap ■■ - • Her scanty household goodsTand sold them, That she-might have the wherewithal : To bury him. r ;.Then was Hertcup. j; jl V, »< , Sojfull of WO6S it could not hold them, .. And so it broke and lost them aIL i'Twas a plain burial she meant - - . , To have found/him, yet heY heart was very J" . shouldbe donej,- -; Buth death despoiled her good iriterit, J '• And; there-was no one left to bury — : ,• Herlight of life—-her- darling son.-;-. rr The coffin-lid was near her feet, And the hist look her eyes had taken, Ere death,;was-on her boy'sidead faoe/f '"; X No'mbreiiheir hearts in"sorrow beat, .Their troubles now are all forsaken, r r Their home is in the Holy Place. '* 'Together all-the nightthey,lay, -•? .*. <■-■, , r;. r 1: And in the morn—-'t was"]Srew Year's morning— ,; Some passing neighbors found them there. Then footsteps came and went away, ' And, many a mother's sob of mourning Was heard upon the creaking, stair.^ v-Tr.^ ■'••■■ Tet not in sadness .endtffmy, lay- .-, , - ■ Of patient Borrow." It'shall even ' Be told to;cheer some heart forlora,!: * •"';. 'J 0 It truly was a New Year's Day! , ,r They went to sleep in grief one'even j Aid woke with Christ on New Year's morn. I I .. k;;>;.-v,;a7v