  By ELLEN O. PECK. The fleeting years, the changing scenes, The light and shade that intervenes ’Twixt now and youth’s rejoicing teens Have come and gone so silently. Tho’ much from out my life is drawn Of love and trust I leaned upon I never thought my youth was gone, But laughed at time defiantly,— Until I met with those I knew When life’s first romance burst to view, Whom long ago I bade adieu, And scanned their faces eagerly; Alas! I read the fatal truth That time indeed with little ruth Had claimed the beauty of their youth, And dealt with them most meagerly. Amid the brown locks shone the gray, And lines of care on foreheads lay, And so, I read my fate to-day, From their faces cheerlessly— What I’d not read upon my own, That youth, with time, had surely flown, And I with them had older grown; The truth—I take it fearlessly. And with a sigh o’er vanished years, (I have no time to give to tears) I near life’s noontide without fears, Bearing its burdens silently; No happy song I leave unsung, A deeper life within has sprung, And so my heart forever young, Still laughs at time defiantly. decorative line
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