Born: July 8, 1821, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, Scotland.
Christened: September 3, 1821 in Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland.
Died: August 1861, Pau, Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Aquitaine, France.
Randall was the daughter of Alexander Thompson Ballantyne and Anne Randall Scott Grant, and sister of novelist Robert Michael Ballantyne.
One of 10 siblings, she was still in Kelso in 1851. At some time she lived in Duddingston, Midlothianshire.
A child beside a running stream
Sat carelessly at play—
Her hands were filled with pretty flowers,
Which made her young heart gay:
She gazed upon them with delight,
They were so beautiful and bright.
And ever and anon a flower
Into the stream she cast,
Then clapped her hands, and smiled to see
How swift it glided past:
And thus she threw them, one by one,
Till all her pretty flowers were gone.
Then when she found no more were left,
The little maiden wept,
And wish’d, but wish’d in vain, that she
Her pretty flowers had kept:
The stream refused to hear her cry,
Give back my flowers!
glided by.
And yet again her bitter plaints
Fell sadly on my ear:
It pain’d me much to see her grief,
Her useless cry to hear;
For only Echo caught the strain,
Give back my pretty flowers again!
And thus have children oft the loss
Of golden hours to mourn;
The opportunities they lose
Will never more return.
Dear little ones! seek Christ to-day,
For days of grace soon pass away.
The stream of time is flowing past—
Oh! see that you improve
The precious season you enjoy,
To serve the God of love;
Else soon your bitter cry must be,
Give back, give back, my flowers to me!
Randall Hunter Ballantyne
Pasture for Lambs, 1849
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