As you have always been to me.

"Step down and out" you've had your day,
Your young successor's at the gate,
Let him be crowned without delay,
The royal stranger seventy-eight.



VERSES

Presented to my daughter with a watch and a locket with a picture of
myself.

Receive, my child, this gift of love,
And wear it ever near thy heart,
A pledge of union may it prove,
Which time nor distance ne'er can part.

I've watched thy infant sleep, and prest
My eager lips against thy brow,
And lingered near thy couch, and blest,
Thy tender form with many a vow.

But O! the rapture of that hour,
None but a parent's heart can know
When first thy intellectual power
Began the germ of life to show.

I've marked the progress of thy mind,