Poems (Bell)/The Mother's Thoughts
THE MOTHER'S THOUGHTS.In the Gloaming.
When the day is slowly fading
And the sun is sinking low.
Rose-tints o'er the hills a-shading.
'Tis then I love to go
And sit in the open doorway,
Where, gazing down the street.
I can see the people come and go
And hear their hurrying feet.
In my mind I see a maiden.
Lovely as the dawn of day,
Brow so fair, eyes like blue pansies,
Merry, charming, winsome, Ray!
Since she left us, nineteen summers
Have we spent in the old home.
"Dead?" you ask: "No, only married..
And to a distant country gone."
There comes before me now the dear face
Of a boy, a lissom youth;
Faults he had some—good qualities, many,
And he always spoke the truth.
Alas! the tempter came and won him
To his side—my bonny boy—
And he fell his truth condemned him,
But in Heaven for him there's joy.
I see a form beside me.
I hear a voice so low
I scarce can hear it, my little
Blind girl is with me now.
Strange, that of all the gay throng
She was the chosen one—
My little Ruth—to bear the burden
So heavily laid upon!
In the quiet summer gloaming
The thought comes of the one
Who always "did the chores" for me
When his daily work was done;
He recked not of the sneerings
Thrown at him by his mates,
My noble boy, he standeth now
By "Heaven's pearly gates!"
Yes, two have gone to Heaven,
My boys so tall and strong,
My delicate girls are left here
To battle with earth's wrong.
Strange course of eventful nature,
That takes the strong and leaves the weak
To close my slumbering eyelids
And smooth my withered cheek.
Night after night I listen
For the step I know so well,
Hoping as the moments go
No harm has the one befell
Who for so many long years
Has jogged along with me.
Over life's road so rugged,
But by him made smooth to be.
The twilight is swiftly fading
And the stars begin to peep.
But still I linger in the doorway
And my lonely vigil keep.
My child (the one that is left me
Of all the others here at home),
Now tells me the dew is falling
And father home has come."
So I leave my place in the doorway
And quickly go within
To receive the kiss that awaits me,
What matter my cheek is thin?
Although my sight is fainter
And my hair is most all gray.
That love is still as fresh to us
As on my bridal day!
And the sun is sinking low.
Rose-tints o'er the hills a-shading.
'Tis then I love to go
And sit in the open doorway,
Where, gazing down the street.
I can see the people come and go
And hear their hurrying feet.
In my mind I see a maiden.
Lovely as the dawn of day,
Brow so fair, eyes like blue pansies,
Merry, charming, winsome, Ray!
Since she left us, nineteen summers
Have we spent in the old home.
"Dead?" you ask: "No, only married..
And to a distant country gone."
There comes before me now the dear face
Of a boy, a lissom youth;
Faults he had some—good qualities, many,
And he always spoke the truth.
Alas! the tempter came and won him
To his side—my bonny boy—
And he fell his truth condemned him,
But in Heaven for him there's joy.
I see a form beside me.
I hear a voice so low
I scarce can hear it, my little
Blind girl is with me now.
Strange, that of all the gay throng
She was the chosen one—
My little Ruth—to bear the burden
So heavily laid upon!
In the quiet summer gloaming
The thought comes of the one
Who always "did the chores" for me
When his daily work was done;
He recked not of the sneerings
Thrown at him by his mates,
My noble boy, he standeth now
By "Heaven's pearly gates!"
Yes, two have gone to Heaven,
My boys so tall and strong,
My delicate girls are left here
To battle with earth's wrong.
Strange course of eventful nature,
That takes the strong and leaves the weak
To close my slumbering eyelids
And smooth my withered cheek.
Night after night I listen
For the step I know so well,
Hoping as the moments go
No harm has the one befell
Who for so many long years
Has jogged along with me.
Over life's road so rugged,
But by him made smooth to be.
The twilight is swiftly fading
And the stars begin to peep.
But still I linger in the doorway
And my lonely vigil keep.
My child (the one that is left me
Of all the others here at home),
Now tells me the dew is falling
And father home has come."
So I leave my place in the doorway
And quickly go within
To receive the kiss that awaits me,
What matter my cheek is thin?
Although my sight is fainter
And my hair is most all gray.
That love is still as fresh to us
As on my bridal day!