The Home Circle.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 32, 13 November 1897, Page 4

The Home Circle.

GOOD-BYE—GOD BLESS YOU.

I like the Anglo-Saion speech, With its direct revealings ; It takes a hold, and seems to reach Way down into your feelings. That some folk deem it rude, I know, And therefore they abuse it; But I have never found it so— Before all else I choose it. I don’t object that men should air The Q-allic they have paid for, With ‘au revoir !” ‘ Adieu “ma cherel” For that’s what French was made for. But when a crony takes your hand At parting, to address you, He drops all foreign lingo, and He says : “ Good bye—God bless you!”

This seems to me a sacred phrase, With reverence impassioned— A thing come down from righteous days. Quaintly but nobly fashioned. It well becomes an honest face— A voice thst’s round and cheerful; It stays the sturdy in his place, And soothes the weak and fearful, Into the porches of the ears It steals with subtle unction, .An 1 in your heart of hearts appears To work its gracious function ; And all day long, with pleasing song, It lingers to caress you. I’m sure no human heart goes wrong That’s told : “ Good-bye—God bless you!”

I love the words perhaps because When I was Laving mother, Standing at last in solemn pause We looked at one another ; And I—l saw in mother’s eyes The love she could not tell me— A love eternal as the skies, Whatever fate befell me; She put her arms about my neck, And soothed the pain of leaving; And though her heart was like to break She spoke no word of grieving ; She let no tear bedim her eye, For fear that might distress me, But, kissing me she said good-bye, And asked our God to bless me.

—Selected