Grandmas Memories | Page 3

eyes:
"And then you were lonely, poor
Grandma! I know,
But so was--my great grandmama, long ago."
A smile lights the dear, aged face, and again
Grandma takes up her
story. "Yes, dearie, but then
It wasn't for long, because, darling, you
see,
A gift _I_ once gave was soon given to me.
[Illustration: "Learns that sweet lesson so old and so new"]
"The gift of a grandchild as fair and as sweet
As the baby my mother's
heart bounded to meet;
Oh, how my fond prayers 'rose in gratitude
true,
For the blessings of daughter and 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