Custer, and Other Poems.

Giving thee joy for pain, and smiles for tears;

The while she murmurs music in thine ears.

But ere her kiss has faded from thy cheek, She shall flee from thee over hill and glade, So must thou seek and ever seek and seek For each new conquest of this phantom maid.

She shall flee from thee over hill and glade,

For each new conquest of this phantom maid.

 The Wish

Should some great angel say to me to-morrow, "Thou must re-tread thy pathway from the start, But God will grant, in pity, for thy sorrow, Some one dear wish, the nearest to thy heart."

"Thou must re-tread thy pathway from the start,

Some one dear wish, the nearest to thy heart."

This were my wish! from my life's dim beginning Let be what has been! wisdom planned the whole; My want, my woe, my errors, and my sinning, All, all were needed lessons for my soul.

Let be what has been! wisdom planned the whole;

All, all were needed lessons for my soul.

 Three Friends

Of all the blessings which my life has known, I value most, and most praise God for three: Want, Loneliness and Pain, those comrades true,

Who, masqueraded in the garb of foes For many a year, and filled my heart with dread. Yet fickle joys, like false, pretentious friends, Have proved less worthy than this trio. First,

Want taught me labor, led me up the steep And toilsome paths to hills of pure delight, Trod only by the feet that know fatigue, And yet press on until the heights appear.

Then loneliness and hunger of the heart Sent me upreaching to the realms of space, Till all the silences grew eloquent, And all their loving forces hailed me friend.

Last, pain taught prayer! placed in 
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