| |
| WHEN the lessons and tasks are all ended, | |
| And the school for the day is dismissed, | |
| The little ones gather around me, | |
| To bid me good night and be kissed: | |
| Oh, the little white arms that encircle | 5 |
| My neck in their tender embrace! | |
| Oh, the smiles that are halos of heaven, | |
| Shedding sunshine of love on my face! | |
| |
| And when they are gone, I sit dreaming | |
| Of my childhood too lovely to last,— | 10 |
| Of joy that my heart will remember, | |
| While it wakes to the pulse of the past, | |
| Ere the world and its wickedness made me | |
| A partner of sorrow and sin, | |
| When the glory of God was about me, | 15 |
| And the glory of gladness within. | |
| |
| All my heart grows as weak as a woman’s, | |
| And the fountain of feeling will flow, | |
| When I think of the paths steep and stony, | |
| Where the feet of the dear ones must go,— | 20 |
| Of the mountains of sin hanging o’er them, | |
| Of the tempest of fate blowing wild: | |
| Oh, there ’s nothing on earth half so holy | |
| As the innocent heart of a child! | |
| |
| They are idols of hearts and of households; | 25 |
| They are angels of God in disguise: | |
| His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, | |
| His glory still shines in their eyes; | |
| Those truants from home and from heaven,— | |
| They have made me more manly and mild; | 30 |
| And I know now how Jesus could liken | |
| The kingdom of God to a child. | |
| |
| I ask not a life for the dear ones, | |
| All radiant, as others have done, | |
| But that life may have just enough shadow | 35 |
| To temper the glare of the sun; | |
| I would pray God to guard them from evil, | |
| But my prayer would bound back to myself: | |
| Ah! a seraph may pray for a sinner, | |
| But a sinner must pray for himself. | 40 |
| |
| The twig is so easily bended, | |
| I have banished the rule and the rod; | |
| I have taught them the goodness of knowledge, | |
| They have taught me the goodness of God: | |
| My heart is the dungeon of darkness | 45 |
| Where I shut them for breaking a rule; | |
| My frown is sufficient correction; | |
| My love is the law of the school. | |
| |
| I shall leave the old house in the autumn, | |
| To traverse its threshold no more: | 50 |
| Ah, how I shall sigh for the dear ones | |
| That meet me each morn at the door! | |
| I shall miss the “good nights” and the kisses, | |
| And the gush of their innocent glee, | |
| The group on the green, and the flowers | 55 |
| That are brought every morning for me. | |
| |
| I shall miss them at morn and at even, | |
| Their song in the school and the street; | |
| I shall miss the low hum of their voices, | |
| And the tread of their delicate feet. | 60 |
| When the lessons of life are all ended, | |
| And Death says “The school is dismissed!” | |
| May the little ones gather around me, | |
| To bid me good night and be kissed! | |
| |
