To Mother.
Twenty years—the best of thine:
Twenty years—a quite long time;
Twenty years of thy devotion,
Twenty years of my queer notion.
Twenty years of expectation.
Twenty years of tribulation;
Twenty years of hope and fear,
Twenty years of wear and tear.
Twenty years of great vexations,
Twenty years of few vacations;
Twenty years of silent praying,
Twenty years of hopes delaying.
Twenty years? near twice that time
To train eight children—a work sublime.
The first—six years old—she has gone;
Emma found a heavenly home.
All the others, I must show,
Put grammar in this book. You know
Upon the slightest call from me,
They spelled or wrote as it should be.
Quite trusty places they now hold,
And all are worth their weight in gold.
Twenty years thus we did spend,
Until this book has come to end.