They were blithe times with us when the

     Summer had come,

With the nightingale’s song, and the honey-bee’s

     Hum,

With lilies, and roses, and long sunny hours,

And holiday goings to gather wild flowers.

 

We went all together, one bright afternoon,

When warm on the woods lay the sunlight of

     June,

And up in the sky was a blueness, as clear

As if not a cloud had been there all the year.

 

Old grandmother went with her staff in her hand,

She said, ‘To see summer once more in the land,’

While good uncle William walked cheerfully by,

And, we had such baskets, my sister and I.

 

‘Twas sweet in the meadows, ‘twas sweet in the

     Woods,

And great was our gathering of blossoms and

     Buds,

By the banks of bright streams, by the roots of

     Old trees,

Where nestled the wild birds, and feasted the bees.

 

Then home with light hearts and full baskets we

     Sped,

When sunset was tinging the old church with red,

But paused at our gate to look back on the view,

How rich in the gold of the evening it grew.

 

And grandmother said, as she gazed on the sky,

With thoughts of her seventy long summers

     Gone by,

‘What glory must gladden that good land of ours,

When this earth is so fair in the time of wild

     Flowers.