Lyon County Times

Separation.
A wall grew up between us.--
A strong, thick wall, though all unseen:
None know when the first stones were laid,
Nor how the wall was built, indeed,
And so their lives were wide apart,
Although they abode one board and bed:
A careless eye saw laughing smiles;
Yet each was to the other dead.
He turned absorbed in work and gain,
Grew poor, unmindful of his loss,
A hard indifference, worse than hate,
Changed love's pure gold to worthless dross.
She suffered tortures all untold:
Too proud to turn, too strong to die:
The wall pressed heavily on her heart;
Her white face showed her misery.
Such walls are growing day by day
Twixt man and wife, twixt friend and friend.
Would they could know, how lightly built,
How sad and bitter is the end.
A careless word, an unkind thought,
A slight neglect, a taunting tone—
Such things as these, before we know,
Have laid the wall's foundation stone.