THEY NEVER COME BACK.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 106, 13 June 1885, Page 7

THEY NEVER COME BACK.

They never come back, though our huarts may be biealung, To live through some moments they gave us again ; The years that we loved, they have vanished for ever, And we stretch out our longing hands for them in vain, They ne /or come back, for eternity holds them, Sunk deep from our sight in a soundless abyss, Oh, gladly, sometimes would we live their days over, And drink dueper draughts from their fountains of bliss. There were momenta supreme, when the glory in heaven Lay round us in rain bo v\ -hued torrents of light, When the glow of the univevse seemed to enfold ns, And life y/,ih all stainless, and lovely, and bright. We loved in the years* that are dead, and we trusted ; Suck love and such trust will bs ours never move. The bloom from life's fruitage is gone, and life's blossom Lies trampled and crushed, with dead leaves buried o'er. We had hopes, in the cold- fringed year of life's morning, The day ere the dew-drops had vanished away, When we thought every sparkle a pearl or a diamond, And nothing but beauty could lie in our way, Oh, sorely we miss them, those moments of gladness, And fain would recall them, if only we could, When crowned witn hope's garland, and glad with love's brightness, All glowing and fresh at life's threshhold we stood. The years have gone over ; love's brightness has vanished ; Hope's garland of glory lies colorless now ; And life, that we thought was bO full of fair promise, Has woven a thorn-crown to lay on each brow. But the years that have gone have borne with them their sorrows ; We would not recall those again, if we might. Thank, God that the dead griefs are dead, as the joys are ; t Thank (Jrod that each cloud has itb lining of li^ht.

They nro *leatl. t iey U'e dead, and m 1 buried for over ; The shadows they left have &ro\Vn din: to our e}e8. We see 1>"! thc< sun in his splcnH« u , We see but die light if we look to the skius. Tho life thit is coinin«: is glad antl unending-, And nothing of love or of joy shall it las-k ; Thank God that time's chains cannot hold us for ev< j r ; Thank Gnd that tho dutid years can never come l>ack. Agnks Nisale. Atielaido, 1885.

" Whose pi#8 are the^e, my hid." " Whoy th«y belong to thtit there bi"how." " No ! I in -an who is th -ir m ister : ' " Whoy," apiin nnsweretl tlie lad, "thai Uttle 'mi there ; he's « rare 'mi to fei^lit.'