Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4685, 12 January 1884, Page 1

Select Poetry.

THE OHILDBEN WE KEEP.

The children kept coming, one by one,. , Till tho boys were five and the girls were three, And the big brown house was alive with fan, From the basement floor to the old roof tree. Lite garden flowers the little ones grew, Nurtured and trained with the tendereat care; Warmed by love's sunshine,. bathed in its dew, They, bloomed into beauty like roses rare. : , But one of the boys grew weary one day, • And leaning his head on his mother's breast, He said, " I'm tired, and care not to play; Let me sit awhile on your knee and rest." She cradled him close in her fond embrace, She hushed him to sleep with her sweetest song, "And rapturous love' still lighted his face When his spirit had joined the heavenly i throng. ■ ■ Then the eldest'girl with her thoughtful eyes, Who stood "where the brook—the river meets," , Stole softly away into Paradise, Ere "the river" had reached her slender feet. While the father's eyes on their graves are bont The mother looked npward beyond the skies, "Our treasures," she whispered, "were only lent; Ov darlings were angels in earth'sdisguise." Tho years flew by and the children began " With longing to think of the world outside^ And as each in his turn became" a man, The boys proudly, went from the father's side. The girls were women so gentle and fair, That lovers were speedy to woo and win: And with orange blossoms in braided hair The old home was loft, new homes to begin. ' So, one by one, the children have gone — The boys were five and the girls were three; And the big brown house is gloomy and lone, With but two old folks for its company; They talk to each other about the past, ; As they sit together at eventide, And say, " All the children we keep at last Are the boys and girls who in childhood died."