ince hence you passed,
What have you lost since then?

"You have brought back a woman's ruddier cheek,
A woman's fuller form,
But where is the look so timid and meek,
The blush so quick and warm?

"Have you come to seek for the smiles of yore,
For your brief life's faded light?
Do you hope to hear in these shades once more
The blessing and 'good-night?'

"Do you come again for the kisses sweet,
Do you look as you onward pass
For the mingled prints of the tiny feet
In the fresh and springing grass?

"Have you come to sit on a parent's knee
And gaze on his reverend brow?
Or to nestle in love and childish glee
On her bosom, that's pulseless now?

"Why come you back? We can give you naught,
No more the past is ours,
Thine early scenes with their blessings fraught,
Thy childhood's golden hours."

I have come, I have come, oh haunts of youth,
With a worn and weary heart;
I have come to recall the love and truth
Of my young life's guileless part.

I have come to bend o'er the holy spot
Where I prayed by a father's knee--
Oh I am changed--but I ne'er forgot
His look, his smile for me.

I have not been true to my heart's first love
Here pledged 'neath the moonlit heaven,
But I come to kneel in the lonely grove
And ask to be forgiven.

I have not brought back the hopes of youth,
Or the gentle look so meek,
I mourn o'er my perished faith and truth
And the quick blush of my cheek.

But, oh ye scenes, that have once beguiled,
In the peaceful days of yore.
I would come again like a little child
With the trust I knew before.

I would call back every hope and fear,
The heart throbs full and high,
The prattling child that rambled here,
And ask if it were _I_?

And I would recall the murmured prayer,
And the dark eyes look of love,
While unseen angels hovered there
From the starry worlds above.

And I've come to seek one flower here,
Just one, in its fading bloom,
Though it must be culled with a gushing tear
From a parent's grassy tomb.

And I'll bear it away on my lonely breast,
As a charm 'mid earth's stormy strife,
An amulet, worn to give me rest,
On the billowy waves of life.

I wait not now by the danc