Classic Poem

Of all the gifts of this joyous day
I wonder what is the costliest,
What the most beautiful Love will lay
In the hold of her whom he loves the best. "

This curious question crossed the heart
Of a happy girl, when first she woke
With many a rosy hope astart,
Just as the dawn of the New Year broke.

But ere the face of the day grew old,
She saw another as young as she
Fall into slumber so deep and cold
That a look was a sense of eternity.

She thought of a precious gift she wore,
New, and chosen for this new day;
And looking at it, she wept the more
Thinking of her who had gone away.

" No New-Year's gift is for her, alas!
My joy she has missed, the poor, pale thing!
How hard it is that she had to pass
Beyond the hope of a lover's ring! "

But lo! she dreamed of the maid that night,
And was dumb at the beauty that she wore,
Yet out of the glory of the light
There stole a voice she had heard before:

" Of all the gifts of the fair New Year,
Mine was the costliest and the best;
A kiss from God! and it drew me here
To be in his Paradise of rest. "