pull at my heart-strings hard Are the ones whom destiny hurries Through commonplace ways to the end of their days, And pesters with paltry worries. The peddlers who trudge with a budget of wares To the door that is slammed unkindly; The vendor who stands with his shop in his hands Where the hastening hosts pass blindly;

The woman who holds in her poor flat purse The price of her rent-room only, p. 85While her starved eye feeds on the comfort she needs To brighten the lot that is lonely; The man in the desert of endless work, Unsoftened by islands of leisure; And the children who toil in the dust and the soil, While their little hearts cry for pleasure;

p. 85

The people who labour, and scrimp, and save, At the call of some thankless duty, And carefully hide, with a mien of pride, Their ravening hunger for beauty; These ask no pity, and seek no aid, But the thought of them somehow is haunting; And I wish I might fling at their feet everything That I know in their hearts they are wanting.

p. 86JUSTICE

p. 86

However inexplicable may seem Event and circumstance upon the earth, Though favours fall on those who none esteem, And insult and indifference greet worth, Though poverty repays a life of toil, And riches spring where idle feet have trod, And storms lay waste the patiently tilled soil— Yet Justice sways the universe of God.

As undisturbed the stately stars remain Beyond the glare of day’s obscuring light, So Justice dwells, though mortal eyes in vain Seek it persistently by reason’s sight. But, when once freed, the illumined soul looks out— Its cry will be, ‘O God, how could I doubt?’

p. 87AN OLD SONG

p. 87

Two roadways lead from this land to That, and one is the road of Prayer; And one is the road of Old-time Songs, and every note is a stair.

A shabby old man with a music machine on the sordid city street; But suddenly earth seemed Arcady, and life grew young and sweet. For the city street fled, and the world was green, and a little house stood by the sea; And she came singing a martial air (she who was peace itself); She brought back with her the old, strange charm, of mingled pathos and glee—

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