When I compare

      What I have lost with what I have gained,

      What I have missed with what attained,

      Little room do I find for pride.

      I am aware

      How many days have been idly spent;

      How like an arrow the good intent

      Has fallen short or been turned aside.

      But who shall dare

      To measure loss and gain in this wise?

      Defeat may be victory in disguise;

      The lowest ebb in the turn of the tide.

      A fellow near Kentucky's clime

      Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry,

      And I'll give thee a silver dime

      To row us o'er the ferry."

      "Now, who would cross the Ohio,

      This dark and stormy water?"

      "Oh, I am this young lady's beau,

      And she John Thompson's daughter.

      "We've fled before her father's spite

      With great precipitation,

      And should he find us here to-night,

      I'd lose my reputation.

      "They've missed the girl and purse beside,

      His horsemen hard have pressed me.

      And who will cheer my bonny bride,

      If yet they shall arrest me?"

      Out spoke the boatman then in time,

      "You shall not fail, don't fear it;

      I'll go not for your silver dime,

      But—for your manly spirit.

      "And by my word, the bonny bird

      In danger shall not tarry;

      For though a storm is coming on,

      I'll row you o'er the ferry."

      By this the wind more fiercely rose,

      The boat was at the landing,

      And with the drenching rain their clothes

      Grew wet where they were standing.

      But still, as wilder rose the wind,

      And as the night grew drearer,

      Just back a piece came the police,

      Their tramping sounded nearer.

      "Oh, haste thee, haste!" the lady cries,

      "It's anything but funny;

      I'll leave the light of loving eyes,

      But not my father's money!"

      And still they hurried in the race

      Of wind and rain unsparing;

      John Thompson reached the landing-place,

      His wrath was turned to swearing.

      For by the lightning's angry flash,

      His child he did discover;

      One lovely hand held all the cash,

      And one was round her lover!

      "Come back, come back," he cried in woe,

      Across the stormy water;

      "But leave the purse, and you may go,

      My daughter, oh, my daughter!"

      'Twas vain; they reached the other shore,

      (Such dooms the Fates assign us),

      The gold he piled went with his child,

      And he was left there, minus.

      My grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf,

      So it stood ninety years on the floor;

      It was taller by half than the old man himself,

      Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.

      It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,

      And was always his treasure and pride,

      But it stopped short ne'er to go again

      When the old man died.

      In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,

      Many hours had he spent while a boy;

      And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know

      And to share both his grief and his joy,

      For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,

      With a blooming and beautiful bride,

      But it stopped short never to go again

      When the old man died.

      My grandfather said that