FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 125 



Time brings us change and leaves us fretting 

 We weep when every comrade goes; 

 Perhaps too much, perhaps forgetting 

 That over yonder there are those 

 To whom he comes and whom he knows. 



I would not hold our loss too lightly; 

 God knows, and he, how deep the pain; 

 But, friends, I see still shining brightly 

 The brightest link in all our chain 

 That links us with a new domain. 



Time breaks no circle such as this, 

 For this, I swear, because believing; 

 However hurt, however grieving. 

 However much a friend we miss, 

 Between the worlds is no abyss. 



For friendship binds the worlds together 

 World over there, world over here; 

 From earth to heaven is the tether 

 That brings the earth and heaven near 

 And makes them both a bit more dear. 



Not weaker now our chain, but stronger; 



In all our loss and all our ill 



We now shall look a little longer 



At ev'ry star above the hill 



And think of him, and have him still. 



Whatever vales we yet may wander 

 What sorrow come, what tempest blow, 

 We have a friend, a friend out yonder, 

 To greet us when we have to go. 

 Out yonder someone that we know. 



To all eternity he binds us; 

 He links the planet and the star; 

 He rides ahead, the trail he finds us. 

 And where he is and where we are 

 Will never seem again so far. 



Read by the Toastmaster in memory of William Marple. 



This, ladies and gentlemen, closes the Fifty-Second 

 Banquet of the Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



Good night. (Applause.) 



