FORTY YEARS AGO.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 444, 8 February 1890, Page 8

FORTY YEARS AGO.

I've wandered to the village, Tom, I've sat beneath the tree, Upon the schoolhouse playground That sheltered you and me ; But none were left to greet me, Tom, Aud fe\v were left to know Who played with me upon the green Just forty years ago. The grass waR just as green, Tom, Barefooted bo3*s at play tVere sporting, just as we did then, Wilh spirits just as gay. But the master sleeps upon the hill Which, coated o’er with snow, Afforded us a sleeping place Just forty years ago. The old schoolhouse is altered some ; The benches are replaced ;• By new ones, very like the same Our jack knives had defaced. But the same old' bricks are in the wa'l ; The bell swings to and fro ! .It’s music just the same, dear Tom, ’Twas forty years ago. The spring that bubbled ’neath the hill. Close by the spreading beech, Is very low ; ’twas once so high That we could almost reach ; And kneeling down to take a drink, Dear Tom, I started so, To think how very much I’ve changed Since forty years ago. Near by that spring, upon an elm, _ You known, I cut your name, Your sweetheart’s just beneath it, Tom, And you did mine the same. Some heartless wretch has peeled the bark, ‘Twas dying sure but slow, Just as the one whose name you cut Died forty years ago. My.lids have long been dry, Tom, But tears came in my eyes ; 1 thought of her ! loved so well, Those early broken ties. I visited the old churchyard, And took some flowers to, strew Upon the graves of those we loved Just forty years ago; Some are in the church yard laid, Some sleep beneath the sea ; And none are left of our old class Excepting you and me. And when our time shall come, Tom. And we are called to go, I hope we’ll meet with those we loved Some forty years ago.