Alfred Austin

“ But there's one in whose heart has your image still dwelt through many an absent day,
As the scent of a flower will haunt a closed room, though the flower be taken away.
Connie's not quite so young as she was, no doubt, but faithfulness never grows old;
And were beauty the only fuel of love, the warmest heart soon would grow cold.
Once you thought that she had not travelled, and knew neither the world nor life:
Not to roam, but to deem her own hearth the whole world, that's what a man wants in a wife. ”

“ Then round by the beans — I shall tire by then, — and home up the garden path,
Where the peonies hang their blushing heads, where the larkspur laughs from its stalk —
With my stick and your arm I can manage. But see! There, Connie comes up the walk. ”

“ When there's gold in the palm, the greedy world is eager to grasp the hand.
I heard them tell of your smart town house, but I always shook my head.
One doesn't grow rich in a year and a day, in the time of my youth 'twas said.
Men do not reap in the spring, my dear, nor are granaries filled in May,
Save it be with the harvest of former years, stored up for a rainy day.
The seasons will keep their own true time, you can hurry nor furrow nor sod:
It's honest labor and steadfast thrift that alone are blest by God. ”