YOUTH AND AGE.

Youth.

When I am old, these hills that bound
My life within their narrow round,
Will be the threshold of the door
That leads to Freedom and to Fame,
And the wide world beyond no more
An idle dream, an empty name;
But I, from cares and troubles free,
Its glories and its joys shall see.
The summer isles of southern seas;
Great battles, glorious victories;
The boundless prairies of the West,
Where red men hunt the buffalo;
Whatever fairest gifts and best
The gods have given to men below—
These, heart of mine, these shall we see
In the brave days that are to be.

Age.

When I was young, this narrow round
Of hills a glorious world did bound;
Here, on the quiet valley floor,
I dreamed of Freedom and of Fame,
Ere yet I learned they were no more
Than a vain dream, an empty name;
In that glad careless long ago,
The happy hours seemed all too slow.
I have been wrecked in stormy seas;
Not mine life’s glorious victories;
Gone the bright spell on boyhood cast;
No more along the primrose way
I wander, for my paths have passed
To this sad world of everyday.
Ah, heart of mine, no more we know
The days and dreams of long ago!

Printed and Published by W. & R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] One of these sons died since this was written, and left an English wife and family.

[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:

Page 439: than to then—“by then having”.]