OUR SCHOOLMATES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 32, 27 May 1892, Page 15

OUR SCHOOLMATES.

It don't seem twenty years ago. It's more than that, I know, Since we went to the district school in days of long ago. Yonr hair is not as dark as then. Like mine 'tis turning gray, And from the top that robber, Time, has stolen some away. The schoolmates of that olden day have drifted out of sight, And some have laid their burdens down and bade the world good ' night. Above the old schoolmaster's grave the clover nods its head Beside a marble Btone that tells the virtues of the dead. The school house, Tom, is not the same. The style has changed since then ; The boys who carved upon the desks their names have grown to men ; The girls we knew are mothers now, with children of their ownTransplanted flowers, they've changed their names and found another home. The trees that clustered 'round the yard have now to gian's grown, The wooden buildings given way to ones of brick and stone ; The village green, where oft we played from early dawn to dark, Is now a place of shady nooks— they call it now the park. There's scarce a Bingle spot you'd know about the dear, old place : You'd hardly find iD all the town c'en one familiar face. You ask for John. What John 1 they say. Ob, he's the bank cashier. And Del I Got smashed up in a wreck. He was the eHgineer. Where's Ace ? He keeps a dry-goods store down on the street below, And Will is travelling for a house and hails from Buffalo, And Johnnie is a priest, who points the way to heaven's gate— I used to drive the cows with him when summer days were late. Where's Alf? You'll find him at the bank. He handles all the cash ; He played shortstop in our old team before it went to smash. And Gene ? Why, Gene's a lawyer now, and climbing toward the top, His hair climbed half way up his head and there it had to stop. And what's become of Cora, Belle, and all the other girls, Whose laughing eyes and roguish ways and sunny dancing curls Were wont to sent our youthful hearts to beating with delight, When life was in its morning hour before we dreamed of night ?

\ Why, Cora married long ago, and in a Hooaier town That madcap of your day and mine at last has settled down ; And Belle is married and divorced. She's living now at home ; The fairest flower of all the flock is left to bloom alone. Where's Mattie ? Mattie went to Bleep while life was in its spring ; Above her grave the grasses grow and robin red-breasts sing. And Uollie's married. 'Round her knees the children cluster now, And threads of silver fleck the brown that catls above btr brow. No wonder I feel old to-night. The boys and girls I knew, With hair of gold and red and brown and eyes of black and blue, Are sober men and matrons now with silver in their hair, And careworn wrinkles in their cheeks that once were round and fair. God's blessings on the boys and girls I knew in days of old, God's blesßiog on the lambs that strayed from out our village fold. And when at last the Master calls the flock again to meet, May not a single face be missed from heaven's golden street. • — Chicago Mail.