Page:The songs that Quinte sang.djvu/17

---

O, friends and playmates of the past,
Who dwell on Quinte’s sunlit shore,
Across the gulf that time has wrought
I greet you all once more!

Though new-found friends have smiled on me
My heart has never swerved from you
The old-time friends must ever be
Far dearer than the new.

The joys that made your kind hearts glad
Have waked an answering chord in mine
And ye have wept when I was sad
My friends of “Auld Lang Syne.”

Through all these weary, waiting years
For your dear faces I have yearned
And oft through mists of blinding tears
My longing eyes have turned

Back to the well-loved childhood’s haunts,
Where dear old Quinte, calm and mild,
With sunny smiles of welcome waits
To greet her absent child.

I miss some faces that I loved
Their feet have sought a foreign shore.
May Heaven turn their wandering steps
To Quinte’s side once more.

And some, grown weary of this life,
Have folded their pale hands and died.
Dear hearts, their sleep is calm and sweet
By Quinte’s restful side.