THE OLD MAN MEDITATES,

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1592, 16 September 1882, Page 6

THE OLD MAN MEDITATES,

BY WILL CARELTON.

i. Nay, Maggie, let my old-style fancies be — I'm sorry that 'you interrupted me ! 'Tis sweet to press a pretty hand like this, And taste the flavor of a grandchild's kiss : I love to draw you to me tender- wise, And look off at my boyhood through your eyes (For they are telescopes of wondrous view, That bring me back a girl that looked like you) ; Your voice is as you just now used it last, A silver key that takes me through the past ; And now you're here, you girl-witch, you shall stay, But still I'd rather you had,kept away. f ii. For I've been sitting here an hour, I'll own, Catching some thoughts a man holds best alone, v And shadows on *ny poor old soul have found That might feel chilly like to folks around. I've seen the sun go sailing out of sight, Far from the gloomy, shifting shores of night, And wondered (though perhaps 'twas wicked) why God would not swing tKose gold doors of the sky And take me from this world, that's grown so, strange, To heaven, where maybe fashions do not change ; For I am like a gnarled and withered tree With a new growth of forest shading me. in. I The world kespa new ing so ! — they fashion it So old men find no place wherein to fit. 11 On and right on," leaps hot from every tongue ; "Live while you live," and " Go it while you're young." An average, moderate life, if these things last, Will be. among the lost arts of the past ; These rushing days of lightning and of steam Push everything out into an extreme. The rich grow richer, smarter grow the smart ; It's harder for the rest to get a start ; And Wholesale grows more Wholesale every day, , ' And Eetail has to stand, back out the way. It's hard to tell, 'mid all Progression's jumps, How far this world will make up into lumps. Farewell, old churn, with dasher fringed with cream, These times when cows are all but milked by steam, And in the bustling dairy may be found Butter by tons, instead of by- the Dound, > While several of the corner groceries keep Its bogus brother, oleomargarine, cheap ! rv. Good-by, old country mill of water .power : This steam one does your week's work it an „ hour ! Adieu, gas, t tallow, kerosene, and whale : ,The blue-eyed,, earth-born lightning makes ' you pale I You sailing craft, make wide your fluttering Lest the great fire-fed frigate rtfn you down I Old-fashioned politics j cease your mild 'strife, When men can say, " An office or your life ;'M Arid you/small rogues,' ere you guilty ' feel .Becatiseja thousand dollars you may steal,' Lo.oMat that scamp of sanctimonious style , '. Whdtpjilfers millions 'with' a charming smile ! I Once I m^sorrel'nag in^peac^could-'drive ? j , » sbflde'-fa^CiiShance; of'yreaciiiifgl^liome I '

Wherefrom the most that I can calculate Is, if to fall among them is yqur'fate,/ * Your heart, ere many months, will "sing tne song, ' r . ' -,- ;• " My pocket's short, my countenance is long." It may be right, the way these fellows < do» it, But old men cann ot fit themselves down to it ; * vi« ' Once all my worries (and a plenty too) ' < Were kind of oiroumßoribed to' folks I knew ; But now the telegraph and papers^try* '* To bring this whole world underneath the eye And my old fool heart into sorrow drive O'er deaths of folks I didn't know were alive. It is an interesting fact to know That news can sweep acrogs'tfie 'counfty so ; But it gets oat of breath, I calculate, And sometimes fails to tell the story straight •; And talk that's false, Or frivolous, or too small, The slower it goes, the, better for us all. It's smart, this flashing news from shore to shore, f - But old men value peace a good deal more. vn.'/ In the hay field how gallant and how blithe . Sang their loud song my whetstone and my scythe I How in the dewy morning used to pass My bright blade's whisper through the shuddering grass 1 y i And gaily in the harvest fields of old „ My sickle gathered God's most precious gold. But now the patent reaper rattles there, The men it drove out gone — the Lord knows where. It brags and rattles through the field in haste, Gathers the harvest — what it doe»not waste — And leaves not much for poor old men like me, Except to sit upon the fence and see. God made man till the soil ; but it would seem . ' He's shirked it off on horses, steel, and steam. It's well — if he don't use the extra time In wicked mischief or mischievous crime. This giving Work the go-by may be smart, But, I have noticed, doesn't improve the heart. I know I'm 'way behind these rushing days, But still I like the good old working ways. vm. Your grandam made her own trim .wedding dress, And fitted it, and wove it too, I guess ; There never, Maggie, was a witching elf * That went past her — not even you yourself. You have her gentle eyes, her voice, her touchBut, sakes! you cost a hundred times as much 1 They've had to flute, and flounce, and trick you out * (It wouldn't be safe to mention, I suppose, That horror-hat you keep for evening shows), ' And squeeze, and pull, and jerk you all about, Till it's a question rather hard to meet, ' How you came through it all so good and ; sweet. '• '■ You wouldn't have had to bother in that way ■ If some cute Yankee had not, one fine day, 1 Placed, with eyes made by money-hunger keen, ■ A sewing circle in one small machine, t Which hungers after cloth and thread ; and sc » Dress often takes up some new furbelow. My old-style pocket with gaunt pain it fills : ' But I won't groan — I do not pay the bills. I ix. "/ • Church matters, maybe, ain't for me to name > For true religion always keeps the same ; ■ And they may biggie, contradict, and doubt ■ And turn the good old Bible wrong side out 3 But they can't change, however hard thej ' try, . ■ Arrangements on the top side of the sky. 5 I like to read the new way that 'tis told — I It often helps me understand the old ; > But when my daily prayers I come to say, 6 I think I'll use the straight old-fashionec 1 way. ' He taught that grand old prayer to us yoi know — ' 'Twas more than eighteen hundred yearj 'ago; # ' And if its words were any way amiss, 1 He'd probably have told us long ere this. \ Leastways, He's heard me so far in that style ' And I'll hang to it yet a little while. > Ah me! this matter's just like all the rest : 3 Old ways for old men mostly are the best. > • x. I But whatsoever changes I can name, One institution always keeps the same, 1 And soon or late enacts its noble part, 1 And that's the grand and glorious humar heart. Perhaps it lurks in wretchedness and slime, Is dragged by Passion through the waves oi Crime; Or Indolence around its couch may creep, And lull it for a season into sleep ; Or Selfishness may ravage all about, Eat its supplies and well-nigh strave it out; But when it can the body's grossness shed, The god-like human heart comes out ahead I XI. No, Maggie, do not go away from me, 1 But turn your eyes round here where I can see; '< They show me that there's much that earth can give Designed to coax an old man yet to live. 1 The tender, true heart you have alwayß shown In brightening up my dim life with your own, The way you've treated me — with as much grace As if I owned three-quarters of this place, 1 While you and all your folks are well aware My purse is full of poverty to spare — Show, in the sandy shifting of life's ways, That Love's first fashion still among us stays ; Aud that young fellow coming down the lane Will help to make my meaning doubly plain.