"It seems but to-day! Oh, how proud am I now
As I lay welcome kisses on baby's wee brow!
A _Grandmother, I?_ How the bright years have flown
Since I was a child scarce to maidenhood grown!

"And now in my arms, looking up in my eyes,
With orbs that are bluer than June's sunny skies,
Behold my own grandchild! Ah, verily, youth
'On double wings flies,' Grandpa says in good truth,

"As he looks in my face where no longer the rose
In my once dimpled cheeks in its loveliness grows,
And marks the white locks mingling faster each day
With the brown that old Time is fast stealing away.

[Illustration: "_As he looks in my face_"]

"And I, as he kisses our grandchild so fair,
Note how soon has vanished the once raven hair
That crowned his dear head on the day when he came
To endow me with all his possessions and name.

"So we grow old together, my husband and I,
Walking steadily on 'neath life's changeable sky,
As 'Grandpa' and 'Grandma' to little ones dear,
Who come round our hearthstone with comfort and cheer.

"And dearly I love the wee darlings to hold,
And cuddle, and close to my warm heart enfold
The dear precious forms, singing low o'er and o'er,