Two Farewells - A poem by Ellen P. Allerton

Two Farewells.

I have bidden two of my neighbors
A long farewell to-day.
Both were going on a journey,
And both were going to stay.

One, with eyes that were misty,
Like skies all heavy with rain,
Said, "In the years that are coming,
We may somewhere meet again."

She was bound for Dakotah;
And watching the wagons go^___
White-covered, heavily laden,
Clogged with the early snow.

I thought of the bleak, cold prairies.
Of the toil for many a day,
With the storms of wild November
Howling along the way.

The other lay cold and silent;
Said naught, nor clasped my lrand;
And we were friends ah, speechless
Men go to the silent land!

Mute, and pale, and speechless
This wild October day,
He passed down into the shadows^___
Into the shadows gray.

And he has finished his journey;
The pain and toil are o'er;
Nobly he wrought his life-work,
Bravely his burdens bore.

To-night the winds are raving;
The snow falls over his head;
Yet he turns not on his pillow,
Stirs not in his lowly bed.

So gone are two of my neighbors;
Empty their places stand.
One has gone to Dakotah,
And one to the silent land.

^__Ellen P. Allerton.