I.
The good ship cleared the harbor bar,
And a fair west wind was blowing;
The misty mainland, stretching far,
O’er the sunlit sea was glowing.
II.
And the captain paused as the deck he paced,
While visions of home came o’er him;
And a weeping mother his fancy traced
In the scenes that passed before him.
III.
And in the cabin with tiny hands
Two children together were playing,
While a weary mother in mission lands,
Heart-sick for them was praying.
IV.
Years passed—so long, so lone the time
Since the good ship had departed,
And in Columbia’s sunny clime
Died a mother, broken-hearted.
V.
Years passed—and a mother forlorn, alone,
Aweary with waiting and sighing,
Afar in India’s burning zone
Lay, broken-hearted, dying.
VI.
And the cruel, restless, rolling ocean
Complains its bitter part;
But oh, far down ’neath the waves wild motion
Lies the grave of many a heart!