Deep shadows mar the pearly snow;
Light flickers on the wall;
While childhood's laugh, as music's flow
Resoundeth through the hall.
Now echoes from the years return;--
Ring out thou pealing bell!
While thought doth last, or memory burn
Thou may'st not strike their knell.
And visions from the earlier days
Within the mind arise,
Illumined by a golden haze;
For earth seems near the skies.
And round our hearth the voices throng
Which tender memories bring;
Those tones which died in even-song,
Those stilled in budding spring.
Once more we gather, as in one,
To list the tale oft told;
That legacy from sire to son
Which waxeth never old.