Page:The songs that Quinte sang.djvu/17

Rh O, friends and playmates of the past,
 * Who dwell on Quinte’s sunlit shore,

Across the gulf that time has wrought
 * I greet you all once more!

Though new-found friends have smiled on me
 * My heart has never swerved from you

The old-time friends must ever be
 * Far dearer than the new.

The joys that made your kind hearts glad
 * Have waked an answering chord in mine

And ye have wept when I was sad
 * My friends of “Auld Lang Syne.”

Through all these weary, waiting years
 * For your dear faces I have yearned

And oft through mists of blinding tears
 * My longing eyes have turned

Back to the well-loved childhood’s haunts,
 * Where dear old Quinte, calm and mild,

With sunny smiles of welcome waits
 * To greet her absent child.

I miss some faces that I loved
 * Their feet have sought a foreign shore.

May Heaven turn their wandering steps
 * To Quinte’s side once more.

And some, grown weary of this life,
 * Have folded their pale hands and died.

Dear hearts, their sleep is calm and sweet
 * By Quinte’s restful side.