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Show A BIRTHDAY. What shall I do to keep your day, My darling, dead for many a year? I could not, if I would, forget It is your day; and yet--and yet-- It is hard to find a way To keep it, now you are not here. I can not ??? the lightest thing To the full sum of happiness Which ??? is yours, nor ??? I try To frame a wish for you, am I [unreadable line] to bring, All impotent to ??? or bless. And yet it is your day, and so Unlike all other days, one bead Of [unreadable line] Of dull beads, little worth to me, And I must keep it bright, to show That what is yours is dear indeed. How shall I keep it here alone?-- With prayers in which your name is set, With smiles, and tears, and sun, and cold; With memories sweeter far than rain, With tender backward glances thrown, And far on-lookings, dearer yet. The gift I would have given to you, And which you can not heed or take, Shall still be given, and it shall be A secret between you and me, A sweet thought, every birthday now, That it is given for your sake. And so your day, yours safely still, Shall come and go with ??? time -- The day of all the year most sweet-- Until the years so slow, so fleet, Shall bring me, as in time they will, To where all days are yours and mine. --Susan ???, to S. S. ??? |