166 THE CHRISTMAS ROSE. 



path would desire to retrace tlie whole road ! But 

 the new year's saliitalions thai ensued, when child- 

 hood had ripened into youth, and, yet more, those 

 "whicli gladdened seasons of longer experience — 

 oh, it is hard lo feel that they must never again 

 be 



muie 



Tiie happiest part of the happiest new year, was 

 that, wlien I could reiterate ihc warmest wishes of 

 the season lo one on whom I might look with the 

 aweet retrospections, combined with recent fenrs 

 and present security, so beautifully expressed in 

 those simple lines, 



• We twa lia'e rin about the braes, 



And pu'd the gowans fine, 

 But we've wander'd inony a weary foot 



Sill' auld lang syne, 

 We twa ha'e paid let i' the burn 



Frae morniii's sun till dine, 

 But stas between us braid ha'e roared 



Sin' auld lang syne.' 



No : this world can afford us nothing, fully to oc- 

 cupy the chasm that remains, after the removal of 

 an object endeared by first and fondest associations. 

 Some, I know, have ru)t their warm affections fully 

 drawn out until, beyond the circle of their home, 

 they meet with one capable of attracting them : 

 and, no {loul)t, the feeling is then more intense, and 

 absorbing ; hut as deep it cannot be : because it 

 cannot carry its associations so far back, into early 



