" LET LOVE ABIDE."

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 84, 10 January 1885, Page 4

" LET LOVE ABIDE."

[In the gardens atßramßhillan ancient wedding ring was dug up. The posy engraved upon it is, " Let love abide.] I see the house in dreams, and know the charm that haunts each silent room Where Lely'B beauties smile and glow, and triumph in immortal bloom ; And old dead loves and joya of yoro come bade to live their lives once more. Deep in the ivy on the walls the peacock sinks his purple breast ; . The place is full of wild-bird calls, and pigeons coo themselves to rest, „,,.,_ While tunefully through ru9h and brake the streamlets trickle to the lake. Across the long gray terrace sweeps the subtle scent of orange flowers, . And through the stately portal creeps a sigh from honeysuckle bowers, To blend in chambers dim and vast, with fainter sweets of summers past. Do shadows of the days of old still linger in the garden ways? Long hid en deep beneath the mould they found a ring of other days. And faith and hope and memory cling about that fcimple wedding ring. It'bears a posy quaint and sweet (and well the graven letters wear), " Let love abide "—the words are meet for those who pray love's endless prayer ; The old heart language, sung or sighed, for ever speaks. " Letiove abiae. Oh, noble mansion, proud and old, and beautiful in shade or shine, Age after age your walls enfold the treasures of an ancient line 'i And yet-let time take all the rest, if love abide, for love is best.

Sakah Doudney.