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HOME AND FLOWERS 



GE AND MOTHER'S G A EDEN 

 "By Eben E. "Rexford 



I'VE been back to grandmother's garden 

 ■where the dear old flowers grow 

 That she placed there, and tended in the 

 summers long ago— 

 The sweet, old-fashioned flowers that used to 

 delight her so. 



There are lilacs by gate and doorway, and lilies, 



all in a row, 

 Whose blossoms we fancied were trumpets for 



fairy bands to blow, 

 And southernwood, spicily fragrant, by the 



door-stone worn and low. 



Pinks that are rich with odors of clove and 



myrrh are there, 

 And I seem, as I catch their fragrance, to be in 



the house of prayer, 

 In oTandmother 's pew, on Sunday, close by the 



IDulpit stair. 



I can see her there with her hymn-book open 



at ''Wells" or ''Mear," 

 With a bunch of her garden posies between its 



leaves, and hear 

 The Voice that has sung in Hearen for many 



and many a year. 



Grandmother gave her flowers to crown the 



maiden's head 

 When she stood at the marriage altar and a 



wife's ''I ^Yill" is said 

 And they came to her for blossoms to put in 

 the hands of the dead. 



I remember the summer morning when grand- 

 mother heard the call 



Of the angel of death, whose summons will 

 some day come to us all. 



The first June roses were blowing down by the 

 garden wall. 



* ' How sweet they are, ' ' she whispered. 



''What dear things God has made. 

 I am going to dwell in a country where the 



flowers never fade." 

 Then she folded her hands on her bosom, and it 



seemed as if she prayed. 



She looked so 'peaceful, so happy, with her 

 hands clasped on her breast. 



Holding the flowers we brought her, the blos- 

 soms she loved the best^ 



That we thought the Heaven she had gone to 

 was a place of sweetest rest. 



Over her grave in the churchyard her dear old 



flowers grow. 

 But I think of her out in the garden of God, 



where His lilies grow, 

 And I fancy she tends His flowers as she used 



to these below. 



CACTI, PALMS, ALOES, AND BANANAS IN EAST LAKE PARK, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 



