274 THE LOST LITTLE ONE. Of that bright and happy land: “And at first I felt so sorry You had called me: I would go And the mother pressed her closer MELODIES FOR CHILDHOOD. THE LOST LITTLE ONE. THE fairy form our home that blest From earth has passed away. THE LOST LITTLE ONE. 275 We miss her footfall on the floor, And when to Heaven's high courts above Though there are voices that we love, And dreary seem the hours, and lone, We miss that farewell laugh of hers, And empty is her little bed, And on her pillow there Must never rest that cherub head But often, as we wake and weep, Then, then it is Faith's tear-dimmed eyes With beckoning hand she seems to say, "Doubt not she longs to welcome you There, happy, endless ages through, To live with her and God." REV. W. CALVERT. RESIGNATION. THERE is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there! There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, The air is full of farewells to the dying, The heart of Rachel for her children crying RESIGNATION. Let us be patient! these severe afflictions Not from the ground arise, But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise. We see but dimly through the mists and vapors ; What seem to us but dim, funereal tapers May be Heaven's distant lamps. There is no Death! what seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, But gone unto that school, Where she no longer needs our poor protection, In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion, Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, Day after day we think what she is doing Year after year her tender steps pursuing, 278 RESIGNATION. Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken, Not as a child shall we again behold her; In our embraces we again enfold her, But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion, And beautiful with all the soul's expansion And though at times, impetuous with emotion The swelling heart heaves moaning like the ocean We will be patient! and assuage the feeling We cannot wholly stay; By silence sanctifying, not concealing, The grief that must have way. LONGFELLOW. |