Looking Toward Sunset Author:Lydia Maria Francis Child Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE OLD MAN DREAMS. By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. OFOR one hour of youthful joy! Give back my twentieth spring! I 'd rather laugh a bright-haired boy, Than rei... more »gn a gray-beard king! Off with the wrinkled spoils of age! Away with learning's crown ! Tear out life's wisdom-written page, And dash its trophies down! One moment let my life-blood stream From boyhood's fount of fame! Give me one giddy, reeling dream Of life all love and flame! My listening angel heard the prayer, And, calmly smiling, said, " If I but touch thy silvered hair, Thy hasty wish hath sped. " But is there nothing in thy track To bid thee fondly stay, "While the swift seasons hurry back To find the wished-for day?" Ah, truest soul of womankind ! Without thee, what were life ? One bliss I cannot leave behind : I '11 take — my—precious — wife! The angel took a sapphire pen And wrote in rainbow dew, " The man would be a boy again, And be a husband too!" " And is there nothing yet unsaid, Before the change appears ? Remember, all their gifts have fled With those dissolving years!" Why, yes; for memory would recall My fond paternal joys ; I could not bear to leave them all: I '11 take — my — girl — and — boys ! The smiling angel dropped his pen, — " Why, this will never do1; The man would be a boy again, And be a father too!" And so I laughed, — my laughter woke The household with its noise, — And wrote my dream, when morning broke, To please the gray-haired boys. A RUSSIAN LADY OF THE OLD SCHOOL. IVE me your hand, dear reader, and accompany me on a visit to one of my neighbors. The day is fine, the blue sky of the month of May is a beautiful object; the smooth young leaves of the white hazel-trees are as brilliant ...« less