THE CHAMBER OVER THE GATE

Is it so far from thee

Thou canst no longer see
In the chamber over the gate
That old man, desolate,
Weeping and wailing sore
For his son, who is no more,
"O Absalom, my son!"

Is it so long ago

That cry of human woe

From the walled city came,
Calling on his dear name,
That it has died away

In the distance of to-day?

"O Absalom, my son!"

There is no far nor near,

There is neither there nor here,

There is neither soon nor late,
In that chamber over the gate,
Nor any long ago

To that cry of human woe,

"O Absalom, my son!"

From the ages that are past
The voice comes like a blast,
Over seas that wreck and drown,
Over tumult of traffic and town;
And from ages yet to be

Come the echoes back to me,
"O Absalom, my son!"

Somewhere, at every hour,
The watchman on the tower
Looks forth, and sees the fleet
Approach of the hurrying feet
Of messengers that bear

The tidings of despair.

"O Absalom, my son!"

He goes forth from the door
Who shall return no more;

With him our joy departs;

The light goes out in our hearts.
In the chamber over the gate
We sit, disconsolate:

"O Absalom, my son!"

That 't is a common grief
Bringeth but slight relief;
Ours is the bitterest loss,
Ours is the heaviest cross;
And forever the cry will be,
"Would God I had died for thee,
O Absalom, my son!"

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

"O MOTHER What do they mean by blue,
And what do they mean by gray?
Was heard from the lips of a little child
As she bounded in from play.

The mother's eyes filled up with tears;
She turned to her darling fair,

And smoothed away from the sunny brow

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Its treasures of golden hair.

Why, mother's eyes are blue, my sweet, And grandpa's hair is gray,

And the love we bear our darling child Grows stronger every day."

"But what did they mean" persisted the child,

"For I saw two cripples to-day,

And one of them said he fought for the blue,

And the other, he fought for the gray.

"Now he of the blue had lost a leg,

The other had only one arm,

And both seemed worn and weary and sad,

Yet their greeting was kind and warm. They told of battles in days gone by, Till it made my young blood thrill: The leg was lost in the Wilderness fight, And the arm on Malvern Hill.

"They sat on a stone by the farm-yard gate

And talked for an hour or more,

Till their eyes grew bright, and their hearts seemed warm,

With fighting their battles o'er; And parting at last with a friendly grasp, In a kindly, brotherly way,

Each called on God to speed the time Uniting the blue and the gray."