Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4254, 19 August 1882, Page 1

Select Poetry.

ABE THE CHILDREN AT HOME.

Each day when the glow of sunset, Fades in the western sky, = And the wee ones, tired" of playing Go tripping lightly by; I steal away from my husband Asleep in his easy chair, . And watch from the open door-way The faces fresh and fair. Alone in the dear old homestead That once was so full of life, Ringing with girlish laughter, Echoing boyish strife; We two are sitting together, And oft, as the shadows come ;With tremulous voice he calls me, " It is niglitj ,ar© the children at homej?* " Yes love !*~I answer him gently, " They're ail home long ago;"' And I sing, in my quivering treble A song so soft and low, Till the old man drops to slumber With his head upon his hand, And I tell to myself the number Home in the better land. Home, where never a sorrow Shall dim their eyes with tears; Where the smile of God is on them, Through all the summer years! I know—yet my arms are empty, That fondly folded seven, And the mother's heart within me Is almost starved for heaven. Sometimes in the dusk of even I only shut my eyes,' And the children are all about #ac A vision from the skies! ';- The babes whose dimpled fingerß Lost the way to my breast, And the beautiful ones, the angels Passed to the world of the blest. With never a cloud upon them, I see their radiant brows, My boys that I gave to freedom The red sword sealed their vows. In a tangled southern forest Twin-brothers, bold and brave, They fell! and the flag they fought for, Thank God, floats over their grave. A breath, and the vision is lifted Away on tho wings of light, And again we two are together All alone in tho night. They tell mo his mind is failing Bnt I smile at idle fears ; He is only back with the children In the dear and peaceful years. And still as the summer sunset Fadea away in the west, And the wee ones, tired of playing, Go trooping home to rest. My hnsband calls from the corner, " Say love, are the children come P" And I answer with eyes uplifted, " Yes dear! they are all at Home!"