Classic Poem

" FRIENDS that we know not," — late we said.
We know you now, true friends, who still,
Where'er Time's tireless scythe has led,
Have wrought with us through good and ill —
Have toiled the weary sheaves to fill.
Hail then, O known and tried! — and you,
Who know us not to-day, but will —
Hail to you all, Old Friends and New!

With no scant store our barns are fed:
The full sacks bulge by door and sill,
With grain the threshing-floors are spread,
The piled grist feeds the humming mill;
And — but for you — all this were nil,
A harvest of lean ears and few,
But for your service, friends, and skill;
Hail to you all, Old Friends and New!

But hark! — Is that the Reaper's tread ?
Come, let us glean once more until
Here, where the snowdrop lifts its head,
The days bring round the daffodil;
Till winds the last June roses kill,
And Autumn fades; till, 'neath the yew,
Once more we cry, with Winter chill,
Hail to you all, Old Friends and New!

ENVOY .

Come! Unto all a horn we spill,
Brimmed with a foaming Yule-tide brew,
Hail to you all, by vale and hill! —
Hail to you all, Old Friends and New!