Growing Old.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2018, 13 June 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Growing Old.

We are growing old together, John and I ; We have seen youth's precious morning Swiftly fly. We have seen life's summer bloom, Quick, for autumn's shade, make room We have watched the rustling flight Of life's song-birds, out of sight ; We have known the hopes and fears Crowding full life's busy years ; All the changes, who can tell, Since love rang our wedding-bell, Life's great joy, that came, we know, " Five-and-twenty years ago ? " We have planned and hoped together, John and I ; We have sowed, to reap together, By-and-by ; Not the good for which we groped, Not the harvest that we hoped, Always waited ; but no frost O'er home's threshold ever crossed ', Come what might, of good or ill, Mutual love kept shining still, And when life some joy denied, Love still found us side by side, With the trust we learned to know •• Five-and-twenty years ago." We have lived and toiled together, John and I ; We have mourned and wept together, John and I ; We have clasped in tender arms, Babyhood's sweet, winsome charms ; And the churchyard holds a name Only John and I can claim ; While from childhood's home we miss A father's smile, « mother's kiss, Yet our clinging hearts still say, " We will walk life's chosen way — Just the way we learned to know Five-and-twenty years ago." We must walk life's shadowy valley, John and I ; Looks of brown will turn to silver, By-and-by ; Lines will mark the once smooth face ; Care and grief will leave their trace ; Hands will not so lightly move, Love, by tender tasks, to prove ; Feet will slow and slower take Countless steps for love's sweet sake ", But, dear heart, what can we ask More than this, that age may bask in love's rays, that brightened so, "Five-and-twenty years ago."