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,
The lullaby song I have sung long before.

"The song which has sung their own mother to rest,
The song which hushed _me_ on _my_ dear mother's breast,
The song which belongs to the years long gone past,
But which _mother_-love thro' all time will hold fast

"And now comes a day when another fair bride
From babyhood grown, stands so proudly beside
The man of her choice; and her sweet eyes of blue
Are glowing with happiness tender and true.

"Within Grandma's arms for a moment she stands,
Then bows her bright head 'neath the trembling old hands
Uplifted to bless her, as Grandma's heart prays
That heaven may keep her thro' long sunny days.

"To father and mother sweet kisses of love,
And prayers that God send truest peace from above;
Thus 'mid the farewells that are merry, yet sad,
My grandchild has entered _her_ new life so glad.

* * * * *

"And lo! on this night while old Grandma is sitting
Alone in the gloaming, while moments are flitting
And bearing on wings that are sure and so fast
The year that now _is_, to the years that are past--

[Illustration: "_'Mid the farewells that are merry yet sad_"]

"A sweet voice comes softly within my lone room,
And sweet words float tenderly in thro' the gloom,
As sings my dear grandchild so gent