of late,

How he stops every day as he goes

by the gate,

Asking after my health. 'Tis a goodhearted lad,

To think of the soldier, so lonely and sad;

The school-children hail me as "Gran'father

Brown,"

Because I'm the oldest man left in the town;

lie,

Reuben Esmond comes too-I cannot tell why.

For I am a tedious and stupid old man, Quite willing to do all the good that I can; But a crutch and a pension will tell you the

tale

Of the warm work I had in the Beech-Forest Vale.

656

I've told it to Reuben-well, ten times or

more

I, sitting just here, little Jo in the door, (Jo is poor Mary's child, she that came home to die,

God knew it was best, I couldn't see why.)

And Reuben and Josie, they sit very still, When I tell how I fought over Hazelton Hill; But the child turns away if I chance to look round,

And stares at the apple-blooms strewn on the ground.

Then she says I must move when the sunlight is gone,

She isn't afraid to be left there alone;
And Reuben springs up so cheerful and spry,
To help me in-doors-I do wonder why.

He don't go away-he isn't afraid

Of the dew on the grass or the deep-falling shade.

It must be very tedious for Josie to stay,
But she says she don't mind 't is the girl's

Never asks me if Josie is living or dead.
He don't seem to like her, I thought he did

once,

But perhaps the old soldier is only a dunce. He won't speak to Reuben when passing him by,

Nor stop at his call-I do wonder why.

Here's Reuben to-day. He looks round my chair

In the doorway for Jo. The child isn't there, And the lad looks abashed. "I calledCaptain Brown,"

And here he stops short, looking awkwardly down,

"To ask you for Josie." The lad lifts his head, While his cheek, like a girl's, flushed all over red.

"I will love her and guard her until I shall die,

And she loves me, she says, I cannot tell why."

I have surely forgotten how Time never

stays,

How the wave of the year gulfs the drops of the days.

Little Jo seventeen! Ah, yes, I remember, Just seventeen years the eighteenth of November.

Little Josie a bride. Take her, Reuben, and be

Very tender and patient." More clearly I

see

Why Reuben should call every day going by, To ask for my welfare. Grandfather knows why.