Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1903 — Empty Shells. [ARTICLE]

Empty Shells.

Where saddest memories abound, The softly curving hill Sweeps to the water’s murmuring sound While all is sweet and still, Save whispering winds, and answering leaves, And bird folks’ sweet, sjreet trill. October’s dreamy haze is here, Yet flooding sunshine bathes The dying grass and leaf-lets sere, And gloriously laves With generous splendor, earth andair, And no requital craves. , A ridge of dirt, just here, uplifts Its comb, and on it pressed A baby’s doll some sister’s gift, And flat irons. Along the breast Of ashen dirt, a broken marble too And tea kettle, among the rest. But where is she, the babe Whose joys Thus minglingwithearth’s crust, Mute spokesmen,-broken, rustingtoys, Of innocence and trust? And whose the hand that placed them there Above her precious dust? Ye happy dead who peaceful sleep Neath granite, car ven, grand, Is there in Heaven a babe most sweet Playing in golden sand With spirit toys, whose empty shells Here mark this ridge of land? Lille B. Marshall, Rensselaer, Ind. The little grave described above is in Weston cemetery, at Rensselaer. Some time ago, a family passing through there in a wagon, buried a little child, and the play things are still on the grave. [Republished from Remington Press.]