The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

GOLDEN WEDDING DAY POEM.

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marriage, and Miss Eliza Livermore, Mr. Livermore's sister, a hale
and sprightly lady of eighty-six, received much pleasant attention. Both
these ladies are members of Mrs. Livermore's family
Mrs. John 0. Norris, the daughter of Mrs. Livermore, presided in the
dining-room, where, among other charming young ladies, the granddaughters, Miss Marion K. Norris and Mary Livermore Norris, who came home
from Wellesley for the occasion, poured chocolate and coffee, and made
themselves generally useful, as well as agreeable. Among the ushers were
the grandsons, Edson and George Norris, while the smaller grandchildren, Ethel and John Norris, were flitting in and out continuallyDuring the afternoon Mrs. Julia Houston West sang "My ain Fireside," most exquisitely, and John Hutchinson rendered in a most spirited
manner several of the old-time songs and ballads, that stirred the pulses of
the people during the exciting days of the Anti-slavery crusade.
The following poem, received from a friend of Mrs. Livermore,
- Mrs. C. G. Whiton-Stone of South Boston, - was read aloud to an
audience that filled the parlor:
"Golden wedding day 1" I said;Was that day, before, more fair,
When a bride in sunlit air,
'Neath the blossoms, growing red,
Lo! your "wedding march" was chorused,
By the singing birds o'erhead?
Though a maiden sweet and true,
Though the flush of youth you wore,
In your heart strange dreams you bore.
And your aspirations grew,
Till your eager soul was lifted
To the work you longed to do.
Yours, a lofty scorn for wrong, -
Yours, an earnest quest for truth; -
These the dreams you dreamed in youth.
And your life work, grand and strong,
Day by day has grown diviner,
Like the measures of a song.
"Golden wedding day!" I said;And again, you stand in air,
Than that sunlit day more fair,
And 'neath blossoms growing red,
Hear the "wedding march" repeated,
By the singing birds o'erhead.