YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY

(Traduction de M. :W. C. Hcwells.)

*T was yesterday ; amidst the leaves, The bird was volable in song ;

Above their pebbled bed the waves Silently, sweetly stole along.

Before our eyes was space immense, And overhead the clear blue sky, Where the bright sun, that eye of God, Watched us in silence from on high.

PE A Gi

I led my children by the hand; Cause and effect the bade me tell, — In the dear voice of infant land, — Asking of me to teach them well.

‘“ My children, if you thus aspire,

In paths of knowledge, I will lead, But you must learn without your sire Ab! then you will be great indeed.”

Suppose we enter the broad plain, Where perfumes are not always ours, F'1l join you in the sweet domain,

To share its labor and its flowers.

Again, along these banks we stray Between the forest and the stream, On plains of joy. ?T was yesterday, But yesterday eam.

ire

Alas ! they ’re now in ripened years, T’m here alone; for them I wait :—

In the child’s place the man appears ; No more to teach : * T is now to late, It is their family, their home.

Me, though white and bowed my head, Drooping in solitude alone, —

I honor the steps the daily tread.

We had 50 long together strayed, Taken through life so wide a range, And hand in hand our journey made,— We cannot deem each other strange.

Such is all life, where ’er ’tis set,

The bird, when fledged is sure to fly, And quit the nest without regret,

That sheltered it in infancy.