Grandmas Memories | Page 3

granddaughter too!
"It seems but to-day! Oh, how proud am I now?As I lay welcome kisses on baby's wee brow!?A Grandmother, I? How the bright years have flown?Since I was a child scarce to maidenhood grown!
"And now in my arms, looking up in my eyes,?With orbs that are bluer than June's sunny skies,?Behold my own grandchild! Ah, verily, youth?'On double wings flies,' Grandpa says in good truth,
"As he looks in my face where no longer the rose?In my once dimpled cheeks in its loveliness grows,?And marks the white locks mingling faster each day?With the brown that old Time is fast stealing away.
[Illustration: "As he looks in my face"]
"And I, as he kisses our grandchild so fair,?Note how soon has vanished the once raven hair?That crowned his dear head on the day when he came?To endow me with all his possessions and name.
"So we grow old together, my husband and I,?Walking steadily on 'neath life's changeable sky,?As 'Grandpa' and 'Grandma' to little ones dear,?Who come round our hearthstone with comfort and cheer.
"And dearly I love the wee darlings to hold,?And cuddle, and close to my warm heart enfold?The dear precious forms, singing low o'er and o'er,?The lullaby song I have sung long before.
"The song which has sung their own mother to rest,?The song which hushed me_ on _my dear mother's breast,?The song which belongs to the years long gone past,?But which mother-love thro' all time will hold fast
"And now comes a day when another fair bride?From babyhood grown, stands so proudly beside?The man of her choice; and her sweet eyes of blue?Are glowing with happiness tender and true.
"Within Grandma's arms for a moment she stands,?Then bows her bright head 'neath the trembling old hands?Uplifted to bless her, as Grandma's heart prays?That heaven may keep her thro' long sunny days.
"To father and mother sweet kisses of love,?And prayers that God send truest peace from above;?Thus 'mid the farewells that are merry, yet sad,?My grandchild has entered her new life so glad.

"And lo! on this night while old Grandma is sitting?Alone in the gloaming, while moments are flitting?And bearing on wings that are sure and so fast?The year that now is, to the years that are past--
[Illustration: "'Mid the farewells that are merry yet sad"]
"A sweet voice comes softly within my lone room,?And sweet words float tenderly in thro' the gloom,?As sings my dear grandchild so gently and low,?To my little great-grandchild the 'lullaby--O.'
"Which, catching my senses as idly they stray?On the pinions of memory, bears me away?To the far-distant realms of my own childhood's shore,?Where the quaint old-time melody greets me once more.
"Aye! dearie, 'tis hard when one's memory is straying--?And back 'mongst the old scenes so fondly delaying--?'Tis hard to wake up to the fact that old age?In life's book of years will soon turn the last page.
"Yet, dearie, I look on your young, happy face,?All tender with motherhood's newly-taught grace,?And realize, indeed, that Time steadily flies,?Nor lingers to dally 'neath youth's joyous skies!
[Illustration:"On Grandma's thin cheek falls a kiss"]
"But speed as he may, be it never so fast,?The thoughts which go winging their way to the Past?Are swifter than Time, as you'll learn on some day?When you, like your Grandma, are wrinkled and grey."
On Grandma's thin cheek falls a kiss soft and sweet,?Ere the young mother hastens with step all so fleet,?To quiet her baby, whose startled grieved cry?Can only be hushed with the old lullaby--
[Illustration: Words and music:?"Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber,?Holy angels guard thy bed."]
Crooning it softly, and crooning it low,?Till again into slumber-land baby will go,?While Grandma still sits in the shadowy room?And smiles as the lullaby floats thro' the gloom.
Now, as she sits thinking and smiling the while,?Behold! Grandpa enters, and answering her smile?(Which even the gloom from his eyes cannot hide),?Draws near the old chair, and sits close at her side.
Their hands steal together; dear hands, which have clung?Thro' weal and thro' woe from the years which were young?Till now, when by age made unsteady and weak,?They yet tell the love which e'en lips may not speak.
"Dear heart!" murmurs Grandpa, "I'm thinking to-night--?As I look at the heavens with starlight so bright--?And note how the moments so surely and fast,?Will bring us the close of the year almost past--
"I'm thinking how like to old age it does seem,?And how o'er life's evening for you and me gleam?The stars of God's mercies, to guide on their way?The souls which are speeding towards heaven's glad day."
"Ay, John," answers Grandma, "like children are we?In the 'arms everlasting' just longing to be;?Full soon you and I will be summoned to rest,?And close tired eyes on the dear Father's breast."
[Illustration]
Still softly and sweetly from out the next room?Still floating and lingering 'mid shadow and gloom--?The sound of the soft murmured "lullaby--O!"?Is heard, while the mother sings gently and low--
[Illustration: