"A sweet voice comes softly within my lone room,
And sweet words float tenderly in thro' the gloom,
As sings my dear grandchild so gently and low,
To my little _great_-grandchild the 'lullaby--O.'

"Which, catching my senses as idly they stray
On the pinions of memory, bears me away
To the far-distant realms of my own childhood's shore,
Where the quaint old-time melody greets me once more.

"Aye! dearie, 'tis hard when one's memory is straying--
And back 'mongst the old scenes so fondly delaying--
'Tis hard to wake up to the fact that old age
In life's book of years will soon turn the last page.

"Yet, dearie, I look on your young, happy face,
All tender with motherhood's newly-taught grace,
And realize, indeed, that Time steadily flies,
Nor lingers to dally 'neath youth's joyous skies!

[Illustration:"_On Grandma's thin cheek falls a kiss_"]

"But speed as he may, be it never so fast,
The thoughts which go winging their way to the Past
Are swifter than Time, as you'll learn on some day
When you, like your Grandma, are wrinkled and grey."

On Grandma's thin cheek falls a kiss soft and sweet,
Ere the young mother hastens with step all so fleet,