When the moments of friendship are numbered,
How oft it appears
That the love which in laughter has slumbered
Awakes now in tears!
We are friends that have journeyed together
Long time, you and I;
Through sunshine and stormiest weather,
But the old year must die.
And awhile in your hearts will awaken
A bitter regret;
And the paths that your feet have forsaken
You cannot forget.
Yet I pray you to mourn not my going,
Though we have been friends;
What am I but one billow, whose flowing
Has touched shore, and ends?
And the tale of my joy and my sorrow
Lives but as the trace
Of the waves, that the tides of the morrow
In turn shall efface.
Yet I leave you, as waves leave their treasures
Of coral and shell,
A gift, passing sorrows and pleasures,
Our friendship to tell.
I leave you the friendships, whose growing
Has been from my birth;
There is nought that the tide brings in flowing
Can equal their worth.
For as shells from the murmurs of ocean
Steal echoes that last,
So in friendship is stored the emotion
Of years that are past.