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Art and Fashion

With other sketches, songs and poems. By Charles Swain
  
  

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FAITHFUL AND FAITHLESS.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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FAITHFUL AND FAITHLESS.

A little knot of summer flowers
Hung drooping o'er the streamlet side;
But ah! the sear and sultry hours
The shallow rippling stream had dried!
So many a trust on earth is lost—
So many a human friend deceives:
The flow'rets found it to their cost,
In wasted bloom and wither'd leaves.
In vernal hope and love they grew,
And, twined in one another, thought
That whilst the breath of life they drew,
The stream would feed them as it ought!
And yet, alas! for earthly trust,
For all reliances below,
Their roots were pining in the dust,
And still the stream no aid could show!

285

But, like a blessing o'er the plain,
The morn on wings of cloud descends;
And fast and fresh the bounteous rain
To every thirsting leaflet sends!
Then woke the flowers to second birth;
A second life to them was given:
Oh, mortal, is thy trust on earth?
Then change thy heart, and trust in Heaven!