Page:The songs that Quinte sang.djvu/84

80 When the gloomy shades of midnight
 * Have enveloped all the earth,

I sit watching at the window
 * For the coming New Year’s birth,

And I seem to see in fancy,
 * Through the shadows of the night,

Hosts of angel forms advancing,
 * O so fair and wondrous bright.

Well I know those radiant beings
 * Are not of an earthly clime—

In their midst a grim old figure,
 * Gaunt and gray, old Father Time;

In his arms he bears a burden—
 * ’Tis an infant, young and fair,

Rounded limbs and baby dimples,
 * Laughing eyes and shining hair.

Onward comes the bright procession,
 * Singing songs of happy cheer,

And I know the smiling infant
 * Is the blithe and bright New Year.

Now they pause before my window
 * And the New Year laughs with glee,

Holding both hands clasped tightly
 * O’er the gifts I may not see.