OLD FRIENDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17230, 22 December 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

OLD FRIENDS.

(By WALT MASON ) Beside the long Pacific tides T have mv hut of stone, here everalstinc spring abides, fierce weather is un known. The land in winter is not raked bv 6torms of snow and sleet : and neople’s whiskers are not baked by sizzling summer heat. So here come manv gents and dames for comfort and re pose; they’re weary and their ancient frames can’t stand the heat or snows And at my door there oft appears some guy I haven’t seen for mavbe fiftyseven years, since I was sweet sixteen. Old spavined ladies seek mv door, with trumnets in their ears, to talk of brave old days of yore when they were bloom ing dears. Oh, all the folk I ever knew in childhood’s happv dav come hither to the ocean blue to dream grev years away. And it’s a bitter thing to meet the friends of long ago, with wooden teeth and crippled feet and hair as white as snow. I have remembered them as bovs and girls suoremetv gav. their minds engaged with priceless tovs. and games we used to plav. Tre collect them in their vouth. and now they’re <n-ev and bleak, and thev come toiling to my booth on lees that I bend and creak. Thev’re all natched i ur» with store made parts false teeth i end legs and hair: but 6tP! thev Via «•'> ! the same old hearts, though seamed hr rears r>f care. Of all sod stories fra’ told, the saddest is the tale of twilight meeting of tho old who once were young and hale.