Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/275

 CHARCOAL 5 STOR Y. 269

Glitters bright with an azure glow, With the stars strung through Like the pearls of dew,

On nothing that sight can know.

But the mystic stair

Of the rainbow fair, With its shining footsteps seven,

Comes not more near

Than our stairways here To our souls beloved in heaven.

Ah ! the pillars high

Of my childish sky I could reach with a childish thought;

But a throb of pain

Stirs the woman s brain, For the truth to a woman taught.

��CHARCOAL S STORY.

I M only Charcoal, the blacksmith s dog, Ugly, and fast growing old, Lying in sunshine the livelong day,

By the forge when the nights are cold. I look across at the little house,

The door where I used to wait For a school-boy shout, a merry face To meet me within the gate. 23*

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