(In fancy) this response to her:--

"I had not spun the sower's shirt,
I had not kept the children warm,
If I had found a wearing harm
In my monotonous toil alert.

"To those who wait with eager eyes
And ready hands and tender hearts,--
They find the giant year, that parts,
Hath forged strong links with paradise!

"Sigh not that Time doth turn the glass
To let the golden sand-grains run,
While longer shadows of the sun
Fall o'er the spring-time, bonny lass!

"The circumstances of a life
Are little things compared to it;
The way love's shown is ever fit;
Thank God, who gives us love, not strife!

"And if I do not stand beside
The hearth, as fifty years ago,
No current of the years that flow
Can rob the radiance from a bride!

"I know not why the world should change,
I know not why my day is done;
And yet this limit of my zone