Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1902 — FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAREWELL TO THE OLD YEAR.

A R E W E LL, Old r Year, farewell to f you; You've been fog many a day A friend most tried, a friend most true— And as we bid you our adieu, We give our heartfelt thanks to you, And speed you on your way. We've had full many a merry time Since first we met. Old Year.

you've sung for us the Christmas rhyme, And rung for us the Christmas chime, And many a Joy at Christmas time, you brought with hearty cheer. , you crowned the woodland banks with bloom Of roses red and sweet—yon gave the violets their perfume, Ripened the cornfield's tasseled plume, And filled the mill-wheel s running slum% To grind the golden wheat. Yoo brought the yellow daffodil To blossom In the spring— Strewed cuckoo-flowers on every hill, And cat-tails by the rippling rill— Aud taught the lonely whip-poor-will His vesper song to slug. T Yon turned the Ivy's green to red, The maple leaVes to gold— Purpled the clusters overhead, And showers of ripened nuts you shed, When fallen leaves lay thickly spread

Above the forest mold. And if you gathered some fair flowers That blossomed on your way. You bore them to a fulrer clime, Where neither cold, nor care, nor Time Could blight them In their golden prime, Or touch them with decay. And ah! you brought, Old Year! Old Y’ear! One tiny baby flower To nestle on Its mother's breast, And close Its blue eyes Into rest. When song birds seek their crade-nest At twilight's shadowy hour. And now. Old Y’enr, farewell to you! We grieve to lose you so— Y'ou've been a frleud both tried and true; And as we bid you qur adieu, We give our heartfelt thanks to you, Aud sigh thut you must go. —Helen W hitney Clark.