Dear Sister Jane, to memory, Sweet,
in this picture the face you will greet
Of your brother Eaf, so far away.
Now bending with age and growing gray,
And you, I think of the days long ago
When 'twas Hammy and Eaf and Sweet and Joe.
And something within will seem to say,
They are all growing old and will soon pass away.
Not to the days of childish joys,
Of the happy hours of girls and boys.
But to the land of pure delight,
Where all is joy and cometh no night.
Then there were others we'd call the less,
Carrie, Ples, Mattie, Susie and Vess.
Nine in all there used to be
But one is gone the Savior to see.
Mattie, the seventh on the list,
Will forever on earth be missed.
She has gone to dwell on the shore,
Or heaven so fair forever more.
One by one we will all enter there,
The joys of heaven with her to share.
Oh! May we all be faithful and true
For to earth we will soon bid adieu.
I humbly pray that all of the nine
May enter there and forever shine.
signed E.K. Taylor, Dec 1891