Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/135

 HIDDEN GLORY. 12$

While the silent grassy hillside,

Sodding fretted roof below, Gave no hint to hound or hunter,

Or herdsman s footsteps to or fro.

Now, the stranger straying thither,

Lighted by the torches blaze, Treads with words of whispered wonder

All the hill-gnomes cavern-maze.

Is it then in Gnome-land only

Hidden beauty lies below ? Do we not some souls remember

Whose good deeds were hidden so

Quiet lives just close beside us, Treading dull and common ways,

Till through rifted earth a glory Shone upon the ended days ?

Then we saw, resplendent, shining, Crystal shapes God saw the while

The cup of water, patient vigil, Nightly prayer, forgiving smile,

Bridled tongue, care unacknowledged;

Blind, we saw not day by day, Careless as the herdsman straying

O er the glories of Loray.

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