SEED-TIME AND HARVEST. 
THE OLD HOHTE. 
BY LUCY DEWEY CLAY. 
Cold and deserted the old house stands, 
Dingy and damp are the walls, 
Dusty and mouldy the desolate rooms, 
Gloomy and dark the old halls 
Where once the patter of careless feet, 
And voices lively and gay, 
In merry songs, or in loving words, 
Re-echoed the live-long day. 
Come into the house so empty and still, 
And wander from room to room, 
Let fancy give us a welcome now 
In the old deserted home. 
Let memory carry us back again 
To the days of long ago, 
When cheery smiles e’er greeted us 
In the old house quaint and low. 
Here, in this large old-fashioned room. 
By its warm and bright fireside, 
A father gathered his cherished ones, 
And gazed with a father’s pride 
On his noble sons in their youth and strength, 
And his daughters pure and fair; 
And a mother smiled on the loving group 
As she sat in her old arm chair. 
And here, alas! in this hallowed room, 
A sad farewell was said, 
As a tall, proud form clad in “army blue” 
Went forth with a manly tread. 
And a mother wept with an aching heart 
As her prayers she whispered o’er, 
But away in the South is a lonely grave— 
For he came to his home no more. 
Tread softly, lightly, the threshold o’er, 
For this is a sacred room. 
Here, a father folded his toil-worn hands 
And went to his heavenly home. 
And a son and daughter, in life’s bright morn 
Grew weary and sighed for rest, 
And were wafted away on spirit wings 
To a loving Saviour’s breast. 
And others have gone from the homestead old; 
One roams o’er the prairies wide,— 
One went to cheer another home 
Long years agone as a bride. 
One seeks for fame in another land; 
But all will sometimes sigh 
For the loved ones gone from the dear old home, 
And the days long since gone by. 
The mother, now, with her youngest one, 
The pride of her life, her stay, 
Is waiting with patient and cheerful heart. 
The dawn of a glorious day 
When she’ll clasp again to her yearning breast 
The loved ones gone before, 
And welcome those who may follow her 
To the home on the golden shore. 
Our hearts are sad as we turn to go 
Away from the homestead old. 
For mem’ry brings to mind so much 
That can never in words be told. 
But as we go, we will breathe a prayer, 
That blessings ever may come 
To the ones who are wandering far away 
From the old deserted home. 
Sowing and Reaping. 
“ ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap.’ Never were truer words spoken 
than those, Lambert, and I am afraid you 
will realize it if you persist in this project.” 
-“You take too gloomy a view of it, 
Heckles; too gloomy, entirely.”-“There’s 
nothing but gloom to view, Lambert. You 
surely don’t pretend to think that you are 
to make our village better, or the lives of its 
inhabitants brighter by opening a saloon?” 
Lambert was silent a moment. Then he 
said slowly: “I don’t suppose the village 
will be any the worse for it. Men who 
want liquor will get it if they have to go 
fifty miles after it. I will simply make the 
matter of getting it a little easier.”- 
“There’s just where the harm lies. Half 
the people in this world are upright merely 
because they are not exposed to temptation. 
Sin isn’t made easy to them. We haven’t a 
drunkard in this village now, and a man 
even slightly under the influence of liquor 
is a rare sight. A street brawl has never 
taken place here. There are no disturb¬ 
ances of the peace. Open your saloon, and 
all this will be changed. You have young 
sons, Lambert; you ought to think of them.” 
-“I don’t think they will be in any dan¬ 
ger, Of course I shall not let them go near 
the saloon.”—“But you will welcome glad¬ 
ly the sons ot other men. Is that doing as 
you would be done by?” 
Lambert moved uneasily.-“It is of no 
use to argue the matter, Heckles,” he said. 
“I’ve got to make money somehow. My 
farm doesn’t begin to pay me for the labor 
I put on it, and it is heavily mortgaged. 
And, besides, I’ve given my word to Butler, 
and I can’t go back on it.” 
“A bad promise is better broken than 
kept,” said Heckles. “You’ll rue the day 
you ever saw that Butler. He’s a man that 
I wouldn’t trust out of my sight.” “He’ll 
