Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1898 — A SYMPHONY. [ARTICLE]

A SYMPHONY.

Little maid! Little maid! I heard your voioe calling Away back in the years of my boyhood’s first dreams; It sang in the lisp of the shy waters falling In sun-dimpled ripples In wild woodland streams. It piped in the call of the bird of the meadows And laughed in tha lilt of the bird on the wing; It lurked in the drowsily whispering shadows Of green-arbored summer and lighthearted spring. And then, maid of mine, when my boyhood departed, And its dreamings gave place to the bright quests of youth, I still heard the call of my love, tenderhearted, Far up on the pathway of progress and truth. It is well that at last you are sitting beside me;. Yet, through the long years I had known that a place By your side, dearest heart, could not long be denied me; That soon, K*ve, my eyes would behold your deqr face. They say that I met you and won you, not knowing That your Voice in my heart was my childhood’s first song; And that song, in my heart, dearest love, is bestowing A blessing that shields me from weakness and wrong. Little maid! Little maidl May I hear your voice calling Away down the hilla and the vales sf the years; May its song on my heart be, oh, tenderly falling •When tife’s Journey ends in the valley of tears! —Chicago Record.