Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/291

 GROWLER GRIMES DREAM. 285

For the royal sunshine uplifted her,

And gave her a shining crown Quite above them all.

Tell her name ? you ask :

Twas a star-eyed thistle-down !

��GROWLER GRIM S DREAM.

a I THY should I be so thankful, pray?&quot;

VV Grim Growler, reading, roughly spake. &quot;I ve had my own hard row to hoe

My way all through the world to make ; I ve earned the comforts that I own,

I ve rubbed my lot to make it bright ; I ve toiled, as any man may do,

And hold my place to-day of right.&quot;

Thanksgiving Eve ! yet thankless thoughts

Came trooping through old Growler s brain, As he sat sipping crusty port

And counting up his worldly gain. Upon the printed page, laid down,

Some words, it seemed, had caught his eye Of thanks that were the morrow s due

For blessings sent us from on high.

But when the twilight dusky grew, And leaping firelight flickered faint,

Beside his hearthstone something stood A Presence, white robed like a saint ;

�� �