278 RESIGNATION. Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken, Not as a child shall we again behold her; In our embraces we again enfold her, But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion, And beautiful with all the soul's expansion And though at times, impetuous with emotion The swelling heart heaves moaning like the ocean We will be patient! and assuage the feeling We cannot wholly stay; By silence sanctifying, not concealing, The grief that must have way. LONGFELLOW. THE ALPINE SHEPHERD. 279 THE ALPINE SHEPHERD. WHEN on my ear your loss was knelled. A little rill from memory swelled, my bitter thirst. And I was fain to bear to you To steal some fever from your grief. After our child's untroubled breath And friends came round with us to weep This story of the Alpine sheep "They in the valley's sheltering care Soon crop the meadow's tender prime, And when the sod grows brown and bare, The shepherd strives to make them climb 280 THE ALPINE SHEPHERD. "To airy shelves of pasture green, That hang along the mountain's side, And down through mist the sunbeams slide. "But naught can tempt the timid things "Till in his arms the lambs he takes, Then, heedless of the rifts and breaks, "And in those pastures lifted fair, More dewy soft than lowland mead, This parable, by Nature breathed, A blissful vision through the night GOING HOME. Holding our little lamb asleep, 281 MARIA LOWELL. GOING HOME. "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." THEY are going only going Jesus called them long ago; All the wintry time they 're passing Catch the azure of the sky, They are going - only going When with summer earth is dressed, Folded to each silent breast; Out above the harvest sheaves, They are going. ever going Thick and fast, like falling leaves. 282 GOING HOME. All along the mighty ages, They are going-only going - Into perfect holiness. Snowy brows no care shall shade them; Bright eyes tears shall never dim ; Rosy lips no time shall fade them; Jesus called them unto him. Little hearts forever stainless, Little hands as pure as they, |