Show J It was New Year's An man was standing at a dow- lie mournfully his i eves- towards the deep blue i where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface a i calm Then he cast where few more i them on the I helpless being than himself were i towards their inevitable goal the Already he had passed sixty of the stages which t lead to and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and His health was his mind his heart and his old age devoid I of The day of his youth rose up in 1 a vision before and he recalled the solemn moment when his er had placed him at the entrance of two one leading into a sunny covered with a fertile and resounding with sweet while the other conducted the wanderer into a dark whence there was no where poison flowed instead of and where serpents hissed and He looked towards the cried out in his return O my place me once more at the crossway of that I may choose the better But the days of his youth had passed and his parents were with the He saw wandering lights float over dark and then he the days of my wasted He saw a star shoot from j and vanish athwart the an emblem of my-j he and the sharp i arrows of unavailing remorse J struck him to the Then he remembered his early who had entered life but who having trod the paths of virtue and were now happy and honored on this New Year's The clock in f the high church-tower and the falling on his called the many tokens of the love of his parents for their erring the lessons they had taught the prayers they had offered up in his Overwhelmed with shame and he dared no longer look towards that heaven where they His darkened eyes dropped with one despairing he cried my early Come And his youth did for all this had been but a visiting his slumbers on New Year's He was still his errors only were no He thanked God fervently that time was still his own that he had not yet entered the dark but that he was free to tread the road leading to the peaceful land where sunny harvests Ye who still linger on the threshold of doubting which path to remember that when years shall be and your feet shall stumble on the dark you will cry but cry in give me back my early |