THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1872. As Larks mount high on Morning Wings The rising sun to cheer So we with light and joyous hearts Oft hail the opening year - But Ah! long ere his noontide beams How cruel fates combine To blight the hopes we cherished ance And change a Valentine When first life's opening scene I viewed From boyhood's sunny bowers Joy spent its sweets in every grove My pathway strewed with flowers I sought a rose, a summer rose Around my heart to twine But blighting winter came and nipped My blooming Valentine - Time was when I could fondly love And kindly yours return But hope has spent its cheering flame Save memory's ashes burn. The withered flower, the blighted rose Will bloom with summer's shine But my lone heart must ever mourn A lang lost Valentine. Oh! Mary, not in future years My one request disclaim - Give me at times, a careless thought - A link in memory's chain.