SISTERS' LOVE

How precious is a sister's love
Calm, durable, and kind.
Friendship or passion vainly try
A firmer knot to bind.

It gushed beside our mother's knee
When 'baby' slumbered there;
'Twas hallowed by the lisping breath
Of our first infant prayer.

'Twas cherished by the cradle side,
And on the cheerful hearth;
It grew 'midst all our infant griefs,
And all our childish mirth.

It blent our voices to one tone
When, round our father's knee,
We sang, in happy artlessness,
Some sacred melody.

It strengthened when advancing years
Bade childish thoughts depart.
And other joys, and hopes, and cares
Engrossed the busy heart.

It grows more firmly in the soul,
While other things decay.
Next only to our filial love,
It cannot pass away.

Such, precious sisters, is your love;
And such, I trust, is mine.
These holy bonds, so pure, so sweet,
Shall Heaven itself untwine?

(Fanny Barker. 1875).