p. 636 | The Home Circle

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 40.

The Home Circle.

THE OLD-FASHIONED HOUSE.

Of all the tender and comfortable things That now and then sweet memory brings, There's nothing dearer that love recalls Than the old-fashioned house with its whitewashed walls. Not a mansion to-day, though a marvel of art, Can ever usurp its place in my heart; For there my earliest prayers were said, And I slept at night in a trundle bed, 'Neath coverlids reaching from feet to chin, By a mother's hand tucked gently in, And a good-night kiss on my tired brow— Oh, earth holds no such blessing now! A garden was fragrant in flowery beds, Where marigolds lifted their velvet heads, And, warmed by sunshine, refreshed by dew, The bachelor-button and touch-me-not grew. In a river that curved like a shepherd's crook, We fished for minnows with bent-pin hook, Or with little bare feet oft waded through, And bravely "paddled our own canoe." 'Twas a home of welcome no one could doubt, Whose latch-string hung invitingly out; And many a stranger supped at its board While blazing logs in the chimney roared. Oh! this is an age of reform and change; And things æsthetic, modern, and strange— Improvements that savor of silver and gold— Are superseding the cherished and old. But I turn from palaces built for show, With mansard roofs and stories below Of frescoed, kalsomined, dadoed halls, To the old-fashioned house with its whitewashed walls. —The Budget.