POETRY.
THE FAREWELL OF THE OLD YEAR.
WHEN the moments of friendship are numbered, How oft it appears That the love which in laughter has slumbered Awakes now in tears !
We are friends that have journeyed together Long time, you and I; Through sunshine and stormiest weather, But the Old Year mat die.
And awhile in your hearts will awaken A bitter regret ; And the paths that your feet have forsaken You cannot forget.
Yet I pray you to mourn not my going, Though we have been friends ; What am 1 but one billow, whose flowing Has touched shore, and ends?
And the tale of my joy and my sorrow Lives but as the trace Of the waves, that the tides of the morrow In turn shall efface.
Yet I leave you, as waves leave their treasures Of coral and shell, A gift, passing sorrows and pleasures, Our friendship to tell.
I leave you the friendships, whose growing Has been from my birth ; There is nought that the tide brings in flowing Can equal their worth.
For as shells from the murmurs of ocean Steal echoes that last,
F. W. B.
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