winter.
53
Slow wending o'er the snow-spread path, and tottering to the storm,
Oft pausing o'er his staff to breathe, behold an age-bowed form.
Oh! weary, weary falls each step, and wistfully his eyes
Seem measuring the untrodden ground which yet before him Ties.
Each feeble tread the space makes less, the cot more near and near;
The traveller lifts his palsied hand, and wipes a trembling tear.
Within the cot the biting blast no entrance can obtain,
And as in spite it hurls the snow gainst door and window pane;
But from the angry storm secure, and heedless of the gloom,
The intercepted window light would shed throughout the room.
The peaceful inmates of the cot both light and warmth enjoy;
Upon the hearth the cheerful blaze is dancing light and high,
And happy in domestic bliss those circling round the fire—
There prattling infancy makes smile the matron and the sire.
(lad little ones with beaming brows, and brightly flowing hair,
To speak their mirth in louder tone, crowd round the elbow chair,
Oft pausing o'er his staff to breathe, behold an age-bowed form.
Oh! weary, weary falls each step, and wistfully his eyes
Seem measuring the untrodden ground which yet before him Ties.
Each feeble tread the space makes less, the cot more near and near;
The traveller lifts his palsied hand, and wipes a trembling tear.
Within the cot the biting blast no entrance can obtain,
And as in spite it hurls the snow gainst door and window pane;
But from the angry storm secure, and heedless of the gloom,
The intercepted window light would shed throughout the room.
The peaceful inmates of the cot both light and warmth enjoy;
Upon the hearth the cheerful blaze is dancing light and high,
And happy in domestic bliss those circling round the fire—
There prattling infancy makes smile the matron and the sire.
(lad little ones with beaming brows, and brightly flowing hair,
To speak their mirth in louder tone, crowd round the elbow chair,
