Page:Home; or, The unlost paradise (IA homeorunlostpara00palm).pdf/104

Brothers and sisters, from your blissful bower
The full-blown rose ye loved is borne away,
Elsewhere to shed its fragrance. Yet grieve not,
As those who miss some treasure gone for aye.
Love chooseth ever what the loved shall bless,
And e'en in sacrifice finds sacred peace.
Edith but goeth, at the will of Heaven,
To kindle for herself a household flame
Whose light afar shall shine. Herself on all
Who in her bliss are blest, not less henceforth,
With Arthur at her side, shall gladness shed,
And to the Home she leaves shall not be lost.

  As some prolific tree whose boughs with fruit
Bend earthward, yet through months of glowing suns
Keeps all its treasure till the harvest hour
Hath come at last; and, ripening once begun,
The process hastens till there naught remains
Save a bare gleaning on the plundered boughs
That look all lonely; so the Home where long
Young hearts have lingered, clinging each to each