Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/303

Rh So, when we grow aweary
 * Of pain, and loss and guile,

He whispers very softly,
 * 'Tis such a little while!

P, up in the sunshiny garret,
 * Where grandma's old treasures abide,

I can fancy her presence is near me—
 * And creep, as of yore, to her side;

So, shutting my eyes, I recall her—
 * The kindly old face in the cap,

The arm gently creeping about me
 * As I hid childish woe in her lap.

The herbs that she long ago gathered,
 * The fire-dogs ashine in the sun,

The spinning-wheel idle for ever,
 * The blankets whose threads she had spun,—

Seem speaking, though silent around me
 * These links of a life that I miss,

And the casket bequeathed with a blessing
 * I touch with a reverent kiss.

As I open the time-yellowed packet,
 * Writ "George to Amelia" without,

With a ribbon (that s made restitution
 * Of sky-stolen blue) tied about,