“I sit beside my lonely fire;
No noise is on the stair,
No pattering of the little feet
That used to gambol there.
“Time was, that, fretful, I would ask,
‘What is that noise I hear?’
A soft voice, answering mine, would say,
‘Only the children, dear.’
“Some to the far-off East are gone,
Some to the far-off West;
And some are bound by other ties―
And one has found his rest.
“No sounds disturb me, as I sit
Within my easy chair;
But what would I not give to hear
The old noise on the stair?”
Anon.
There will be no loneliness in the Father’s house. May we and ours all be gathered there.